MURCOF: La Sangre Iluminada (InFiné)

themilkman on May 2nd 2011 11:19 pm

Murcof: La Sangre Iluminada

MURCOF
La Sangre Iluminada
IF1014LP
InFiné 2011
20 Tracks. 39mins52secs

Amazon UK: LP+CD | DLD US: DLD Boomkat: LP+CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

After the vast expanses of Cosmos, La Sangre Iluminada (Enlightened Blood) marks a return to the miniature landscapes and gentle clair-obscur overtones of Remembranza for Murcof. The music was originally conceived as backdrop to the 2007 feature length movie of the same title by Mexican director Iván Ávila Dueñas, and was published a year later on Mexican imprint Intolerancia. For this limited edition version, released on the excellent InFiné on 180g red vinyl and accompanied by a CD, the soundtrack has been re-edited by Murcof himself.

Dueñas’s movie, inspired by the poems of Jose Carlos Becerra, follows six characters who mutate into new bodies but retain traces of their previous lives. The music created by Fernando Corona matches the atmospheric moods of the film and the intentionally slow pace adopted by Dueñas. Continue Reading »

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Murcof & Francesco Tristano, Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London, 16/11/2010

themilkman on Nov 17th 2010 12:44 am

Murcof & Francesco Tristano, Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London, 16/11/2010

The London Jazz Festival programme is known to regularly extend well beyond the realm of jazz, a genre itself subject to wide open interpretation. For its 2010 edition, the festival organisers have invited Mexican electronic artist Murcof to perform at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, on the South Bank, two years on from his LJF debut in the Purcell Room next door, where he performed with Spanish ensemble BCN216.

For this evening’s performance, Murcof rekindled his long-running partnership with Francesco Tristano, began a few years ago when Fernando Corona produced Tristano’s debut solo record, Not For Piano, released in 2007, and which consequently developed into a full live collaboration. Continue Reading »

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10 YEARS IN 20 RECORDS

themilkman on Jan 4th 2010 12:17 am

10 years in 20 records

The noughties have seen probably the most radical changes in the music industries since the advent of the record. Consumption habits have dramatically moved from traditional to digital formats, music has been increasingly seen as something to steal rather than to buy, and listening habits means that nowadays, the album is becoming increasingly redundant. Or is it? Whereas it had, at least in some circles, become totally acceptable to fill records with substandard music, it is now essential for artists to create consistent pieces of work if they want to retain the attention of their audience. The last ten years have delivered their fair share of hits and misses, and this list doesn’t pretend to be in any way shape or form exhaustive. This is just, in no particular order, the definitive list of the 20 albums that have defined the noughties at themilkfactory.

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Murcof / Oren Marshall, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London, 20/11/2008

themilkman on Nov 25th 2008 12:23 am

Murcof / Oren Marshall, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London, 20/11/2008

Pacing the room like a dragon scanning a dark cave for intruders, breathing heavily, following the sent of unfamiliar bodies, Oren Marshall’s opening piece of this performance at the Purcell Room, on the South Bank in London was made solely of breathing sounds propelled through the gigantic mouth of his tuba. Music was not the concern here; instead, it seemed as if Marshall’s purpose was to get up close and personal with his audience. Getting off the stage to walk slowly past the whole front row, then venturing up a few steps on each on the aisles, it felt as if Marshall and the audience were evaluating each other. Once back on stage, the sounds extracted from the tuba were processed through various delays to build the outlines of cyclical pieces and occasional rhythmic patterns. Twisted and bent out of shape, the sounds coming out of the instruments seemed to gain otherworldly features, sounding for a moment like a broken acid squelch or a little girl’s scream, until, at one point, the layers of noise had very little to do with the reality of the instrument. It is with his last piece thought that Marshall demonstrated the highest level of dexterity. Continue Reading »

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MURCOF: The Versailles Sessions (The Leaf Label)

themilkman on Nov 19th 2008 01:46 am

Murcof: The Versailles Sessions

MURCOF
The Versailles Sessions
BAY67
The Leaf Label 2008
06 Tracks. 49mins54secs

Murcof’s music has become increasingly orchestral in recent years. The subtle elegance of his first few releases, built around samples of contemporary classical music encased in fine layers of micro beats has progressively been replaced by altogether much more ambitious and vast forms. For his last album, Cosmos, released last year, Mexican-born Fernando Corona worked with recording of actual acoustic classical instruments which he then worked into vast pieces.

The Versailles Sessions is not the follow up to Cosmos as such. In 2007, Fernando Corona was commissioned a series of musical pieces for Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, a yearly event which focuses on sound, light and water at the Chateau de Versailles near Paris, once the residence of Louis XIV. Continue Reading »

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Murcof live, Peter Harrison Planetarium, Greenwich, 4/10/2007

themilkman on Oct 8th 2007 01:58 pm

Feature: Murcof Live, Peter Harrison Planetarium, Greenwich

Coinciding with the release of his third album, Cosmos, Murcof’s Fernando Corona recently embarked on a European tour, with a handful of special performances in Planetariums, the first of which took place at the newly opened Peter Harrison Planetarium, part of the Royal Observatory, in the superb settings of Greenwich Park. From the outside, the slick dark modern structure of the planetarium, situated between the main observatory and the South Building, which, until three years ago, housed the old planetarium, resembles a giant telescope pointing toward the sky, while the restored Victorian main building acting as a majestic earthy ground anchor. Continue Reading »

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MURCOF: Cosmos (The Leaf Label)

themilkman on Aug 22nd 2007 01:06 pm

Murcof: Cosmos

MURCOF
Cosmos
BAY59CD
The Leaf Label 2007
06 Tracks. 56mins12secs

In the five years that separate Murcof’s majestic debut album, Martes, and his most recent offering, Cosmos, Fernando Corona has become one of the most respected electronic musicians around, and a source of inspiration for a whole new generation of musicians, not only in his native Mexico where his success has energised a myriad of new artists and labels, but also across Europe, with artists such as Deaf Center or part of the roster of Erik Skodvin’s Miasmah imprint openly claiming to have been influenced by his visionary take on classical sounds and electronica.

Coming two years after Remembranza, which explored more complex sound and harmonic structures than its predecessor, Cosmos is an altogether much grander and ambitious record than any of his previous releases. Continue Reading »

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INTERVIEW: MURCOF Space-time Continuum

themilkman on Aug 20th 2007 10:41 pm

INTERVIEW: MURCOF Spacetime Continuum

With just a handful of releases under his belt, Mexican electronic musician Fernando Corona, AKA Murcof, has established a very unique sound and is already named as a major influence by some. Five years after his seminal debut album, Martes, was released, he is back with his magnificent third album, Cosmos, on Leaf. For this latest effort, Corona pretty much ditches the micro beats and samples that have informed previous releases to work from recordings of real classical instruments. The result is a superb tapestry of sounds, drones and melodies which Corona will take on the road for a planetarium tour in the autumn. Here, Fernando Corona talks to the themilkman from his home in Barcelona, where he currently resides, about the new album, his soundtrack work and the rise of the Mexican electronic scene.

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