Aldo Zolev’s “Canja para Contrabaixo, 24 Microfones e 2 Mixer” treats the contrabass as a source of texture rather than conventional melody or rhythm. Close, detailed sounds reveal bow noise, resonances and impacts from the body of the instrument, with different elements moving across the stereo field.
The recording method is unusually elaborate, using a contrabass captured with 24 microphones and routed through two mixers. The resulting sounds range from isolated acoustic details to denser, grainier textures, continually changing the apparent scale and character of the instrument.
There is something of 1960s experimental classical music in the emphasis on process and texture, with moments recalling early Stockhausen. Conventional harmony and rhythmic movement are largely set aside as small changes in resonance, pitch and spatial positioning become the focus.
Based in Bogotá, Zolev has previously worked with combinations of acoustic and electronic sound. Here, that approach is concentrated entirely on the contrabass, using microphones, mixing and spatial movement to explore the sounds contained within a single instrument.
