It seems a shame that Fernando Corona has chosen to
record under the name Murcof: it’s a pseudonym
whose anonymity verges on the anodyne. Yet Murcof’s
music is gorgeous bordering on sublime. Murcof’s
first album, Martes,
was accorded plaudits by many critics and became one
of the Leaf Label’s bestsellers. Its long-playing
successor appears, on paper at least, to be something
of a hodgepodge, consisting as it does of:
Reworkings of four tracks from Murcof’s first
album, Martes
The two tracks from the Ulysses 12” released
in 2003
The two remixes from the Ulysses remix 12”
Two previously unreleased tracks
As a result Utopía isn’t referred
to as an album proper, but rather a collection of odds
and ends. The advantage of this is that it’s being
sold at a lower price, the disadvantage is that it may
be in danger of being overlooked because such a description
conveys a misleading impression: these eleven tracks
in fact present an impressively consistent whole. Subtlety
is the watchword here. None of Utopía’s
musical elements can be described as intrusive. The
result however is never languorous or dull: both Murcof
and his sympathetic remixers (Jan Jelinek, Deathprod,
Sutekh, Fax, Aeroc, Icarus
and Colleen) create
a remarkable degree of aural space that allows the listener
the liberty of appreciating and exploring the interplay
between sonic event and enveloping ambience.
Many of the tracks appear to be composed of atmospheres
thin and light as gossamer, diaphanous veils, which
drift across the field of hearing. If King Crimson hadn’t
already named an instrumental track on their 1984 Album
Three Of A Perfect Pair: Nuages (That Which
Passes, Passes Like Clouds), then it might have
been employed by Murcof to entirely appropriate effect.
Unhurried beats appear to well up naturally out of the
aforesaid atmospheres. These beats often take a long
time to appear, may fade or cease only to reappear again
much later. Three tracks here are over ten minutes long
so there’s time enough for this to happen naturally
in an unforced way. The other tracks share the expansive
feeling of their longer sisters. There is a distinct
sense of foreground and background throughout this album.
For the former, Murcof deploys glitches (normally used
by others as rhythmic texture) in such a sparing way
that they might be experienced as some form of careful
protagonist letting fall a trail of crumbs for the listener
to follow.
For Utopía to have been recorded in
a teeming city is unthinkable. It must surely have been
recorded on a vast plain whose horizons meet steeply
rising mountains.
Colin Buttimer
4/5
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