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. Working with sampled string instruments and piano, which are arranged into layers upon layers of dense and often murky sonic magma, some processed into grainy structures or looped into pulsating sequences, others stripped down, with only their most textured characteristics left, Corona creates here a series of particularly intense introspective vignettes, most of them lasting barely long enough to even begin to truly blossom, which at times appear to merge into one long narrative, so consistent are his soundscapes and approach. This is perhaps emphasised further by the tracks often working in sequences of two to five sections, which are often built around a central theme, whether it is a particular motif embedded within others (Hugo I-II),  environmental noises (Eugenio I-IV, Soriano I-III) or an atmospheric setting (Paloma I-V, Isaías I-IV), accentuating the hazy aspect of this soundtrack by blurring the boundaries between each track.

It is very much this contemplative approach which is reminiscent of Remembranza. Indeed, like he did for that record, Murcof works from a relatively narrow sound pool, which he expands greatly by twisting some of them beyond recognition or extruding their textured features to build claustrophobic soundscapes. The intensity of the music and the continuous shift in the tunes created by the rapid succession of tracks contribute to this soundtrack feeling particularly haunting, but often, it is the simple friction of a bow on strings or the weight of a mallet which, as they appear at once part of the music and exquisite features, get under the skin. Throughout, Corona’s frugal use of beats is equally key to the fragile balance of the record, often appearing as a way to diffuse some of the tension acquired along the way. The album closes with Como Quisera Decirte, a song originally sung by seventies Chilian band Los Angels Negros upon which he puts his own stamp, retaining the vocals and feel, but retouching it to gently highlight the natural eeriness of the song.

With this soundtrack, Murcof has drawn resources from the more subtle and delicate side of his personality to stick to Iván Dueñas’s eerie tale, but even at its most intimate and introspective, his music remains intensely cinematic and evocative. And, while those expecting a follow-up building on the stellar forms of Cosmos are undoubtedly in for a massive disappointment, La Sangre Iluminada is much more than an interim collection and shows Murcof has lost none of his flair.

4.7/5

Murcof | Murcof (MySpace) | InFiné
Amazon UK: LP+CD | DLD US: DLD Boomkat: LP+CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

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. Both have been treading the boundaries of classical and electronica for some time. Corona has progressively moved from entirely sample-based work on his early records to more organic forms, albeit still relying on samples, but this time of instruments, allowing here greater control in his overall sound. Tristano has him made the inverse journey almost, starting as a classical pianist before moving into more experimental and electronic territories.

The pair kicked off their set with a very atmospheric improvisation, Tristano throwing fragments of melody and chords, rare at first, then increasing in frequency, Murcof processing them on the fly, dropping delayed and echoed notes over a loose windswept soundscape. As the piece gained momentum and clearer themed appeared, it was at times as if Tristano was controlling Corona’s machines from his side of the stage, his melodies being echoed on Corona’s side. Early on, Corona appeared to settle for a rhythmic pattern built from a single looped piano note, but this vanished as swiftly as it had appeared, leaving only the vaporous sonic layer at the back to support Tristano’s angular effort. It took some time for the pace to finally pick up, but when it did, it did so very elegantly, as a very linear techno groove progressively pulled over dense processed piano textures. Alternating between straight playing and more unconventional use of a piano, plucking strings straight into the instrument’s body or using the wood structure as percussive element, Tristano was then building on Corona’s groove as things began to take a more cosmic aspect, but not quite in the way Murcof had developed on Cosmos. While Tristano continued to build up arpeggios, brittle melodic structures and rhythmic patterns, Corona  was either echoing Tristano’s performance or adorning it with quirky electronics, reminiscent in part of early Tangerine Dream electronic exploration, his usual classical brushes here totally non-existent, leaving that particularly perspective entirely to Tristano.

The second, shorter, piece relied much more heavily on Murcof, the man laying down a heart pulse over a diaphanous soundscape right from the start, while Tristano, totally motionless at first, began to weave a stellar melody over Corona’s consistently throbbing backdrop. Taking once again the lead for the third of the pair’s collaborations, using both the keyboard and frame of his instrument, Tristano veered closer to minimal techno structures by applying just a few notes in any given timeframe, repeating them again and again. Adding another set of complex rhythmic patterns, Corona eventually set the piece in motion, triggering increasingly hypnotic piano riffs, until they found themselves locked in a relentless groove. The beat dropped for a moment, bringing the focus back almost entirely on Tristano, yet this was only to be a temporary remission. As Murcof set his rhythmic patterns into place again, the piece, and the night, reached it climax. All was left for the pair was to bring it all to a complete stop, but this took another few minutes of fading arpeggios and beats reluctantly pulling away.

Both Corona and Tristano seemed to struggle a tad to get their set fully in motion at first, their initial ambient exploration failing to fully make a mark, but once they found an angle, everything fell into place and they appeared more confident and relaxed with their performance, which in turned impacted very positively on the fluidity of the music, eventually making it a very memorable evening.

Murcof | Murcof (MySpace) | Francesco Tristano | Francesco Tristano (MySpace) | The Leaf Label | InFiné | South Bank Centre

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.

JOANNA NEWSOM
Ys
DC303CD
Drag City 2006
05 Tracks. 55mins41secs
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An album like no other, by an artist like no other. Containing just five songs, some developed over fifteen minutes, Ys, named after a small mythical city on the coast of Brittany, France, is the second album by American folk singer and harp player Joanna Newsom. Van Dyke Parks wraps lush orchestrations around Joanna Newsom’s weird and wonderful tales to give her poetic lyrics additional relief and accentuate the emotional nature of her compositions.

Read review

MURCOF
Martes
BAY23CD
The Leaf Label 2002
09 Tracks. 51mins55secs
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Sampling contemporary classical works and assembling them into stark electronic pieces, propelled by micro beats and glitches, Mexican artist Fernando Corona, recording under the name Murcof, created one of the most compelling and evocative electronic debuts of the decade.

Read review

BROADCAST
Tender Buttons
WARPCD136
Warp Records 2005
14 Tracks. 40mins32secs
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By the time they released their third album, Broadcast had simmer down to just Trish Keenan and James Cargill, and had shed most of the rich and ornate forms of previous records to only retain the gritty electronic core of their music.

Read review

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Merriweather Post Pavilion
WIGCD216
Domino Recording Co. 2009
11 Tracks. 54mins42secs
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Merriweather Post Pavilion is a far cry from the primal tribal sound of Animal Collective’s early records, yet it is also a testament of how the band have retained the essence of their sound while continuously evolving into more song-based forms.

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PORTISHEAD
Third
1764013
Island Records 2008
11 Tracks. 50mins06secs
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It took over ten years for Portishead to release the follow up to their eponymous second album, but Third proved worth the wait. Gone was the trip-hop of the mid-nineties, replaced with healthy doses of Krautrock, but at the heart of it still lies ‘that voice’.

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ARVE HENRIKSEN
Cartography
ECM2086
ECM Records 2008
12 Tracks. 51mins11secs
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After three genre-defining albums for Rune Grammofon, Arve Henriksen’s Cartography, released on ECM, showed a more mature approach. Working with the cream of Scandinavian jazz, Henriksen created with this fourth album a truly masterful work.

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BIOSPHERE
Dropsonde
TO66LP
Touch 2005
06 Tracks. 37mins52secs
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After a series of increasingly isolationist ambient records, Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen took a different path with his eighth album, incorporating jazz rhythms and richer, warmer soundscapes into his sumptuous ambient compositions.

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CLARK
Body Riddle
WARPCD149
Warp Records 2006
11 Tracks. 42mins21secs
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Clark has established himself as the most consistent of Warp’s electronic artists of the decade with a string of excellent electronic records. Gritty, raw and angular, Body Riddle, his third album, defined Clark’s sound more than any other.

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AUTECHRE
Quaristice / Quaristice (Versions)
WARPCD333X0
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 67mins49secs
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Seventeen years on from their first release, Autechre continue to redefine their sound record after record. Quaristice, with shorter, snappier tracks, showed a return to more accessible musical forms, while its sister album, Quaristice (Versions), offered totally different versions of some of the same tracks.

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BURIAL
Untrue
HDBC002
Hyperdub Records 2007
10 Tracks. 50mins28secs
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A strong progression from the clinical dubstep of Burial’s debut, Untrue introduced haunting voices and swirling melodies, wrapped around razor sharp beats.

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TWINE
Twine
GI18
Ghostly International 2003
09 Tracks. 63mins32secs
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Twine’s fourth album constituted the pinnacle of the duo’s electro-acoustic work. Processing acoustic and electric instruments and incorporating them in their complex electronic constructions, occasionally adding vocal samples, they created a truly compelling record.

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BENOÎT PIOULARD
Précis
KRANK098
Kranky 2006
14 Tracks. 36mins52secs
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Combining delicate acoustic song forms and electronics, American musician Thomas Meluch, recording as Benoît Pioulard, produced a stunning record, filled with poetic touches and intelligent pop music.

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THE BLACK DOG WITH BLACK SIFICHI
Unsavoury Products
PUPLP3
Hydrogen Dukebox 2002
20 Tracks. 65mins26secs
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Prior to The Black Dog becoming a trio again, Ken Downie recorded this record with Scottish poet Black Sifichi, who can be heard throughout the album placing his odd surrealist tales over Downie’s impeccably classy electronica.

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MAX RICHTER
The Blue Notebooks
CD1304
130701/Fat-Cat Records 2004
11 Tracks. 40mins36secs
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One of the brightest talents on the new classical scene, composer and pianist Max Richter created a truly evocative piece of work with his second album, mixing delicate piano pieces, compositions for string quartets, discreet electronics and found sounds.

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THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA
Et In Arcadia Ego
HPLL014
Highpoint Lowlife 2005
09 Tracks. 57mins00secs
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The first album by Marcia Blaine School For Girls member Ruaridh Law was released five years ago on the excellent Highpoint Lowlife, deploying inspired atmospheric soundscapes and complex beat structures over just under an hour.

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310
Recessional
BAY33CD
The Leaf Label 2003
15 Tracks. 54mins37secs
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Combining elements of hip-hop, jazz, electronica and folk has been at the core of 310’s work for over a decade now, but on their fifth album, their third for Leaf, the duo formed of Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan gave their sound a more accessible twist while losing none of its original intricacy.

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VARIOUS PRODUCTION
The World Is Gone
XLCD204
XL Recordings 2006
12 Tracks. 46mins52secs
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Operating under a rather anonymous name, British duo Various Production conjured the contradictory forces of urban dubstep and pastoral folk into one fascinating record, served by a plethora of vocal contributors.

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COLLEEN ET LES BOITES A MUSIQUE
Colleen Et Les Boîtes A Musique
BAY53CD
The Leaf Label 2006
14 Tracks. 38mins55secs
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French artist has released three magnificent records in the last decade, yet it is this mini album, originally commissioned by French public service radio station France Culture, composed entirely on music boxes and processed on computer later on, that has proved the most enduring, evocative and poetic of the lot.

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SUPERSILENT
6
RCD2029
Rune Grammofon 2003
06 Tracks. 57mins51secs
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The sixth album by Norwegian super group Supersilent showed yet another dimension to the quartet’s incredibly vast repertoire by investigating the slightly more subtle ambient side of their improvisation work.

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BEN FROST
Theory Of Machines
HVALUR2
Bedroom Community 2006
05 Tracks. 38mins40secs
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Australian musician Ben Frost’s first album for Bedroom Community was like a series of shockwaves delivered in the space of forty minutes and five tracks. A deeply haunting and often threatening record, it continues to make a considerable mark.

Read review

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. Leaving once again the relative safety of the stage, he found himself playing a recurring theme with no pause or breathing point of sort, the only apparent sign of any human scale being the heavy nasal air intake punctuating the music. This time, Marshall went up the whole set of steps on one side of the auditorium, fought his way through a row of seats and came back down on the other side, again coming so close to a handful of audience members that they almost ended up swallowed by the beast. His last outburst took place as he disappeared behind the curtain at the back of the stage, bringing this surprising performance to a close with a truly humoristic twist.

A few minutes later, Murcof took to the stage, accompanied by Spanish ensemble BCN216, which consists, for this tour, of a viola, a cello and a trombone, and visual artist Flicker. Coinciding with the release of Murcof’s The Versailles Sessions, focusing on his compositions for last year’s edition of Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes at the chateau de Versailles, near Paris, this UK tour is actually an opportunity for Fernando Corona to road-test some of the music that is set to become part of his next album, Océano, pencilled for next year, in one form or another. This evening’s performance was articulated around four new and very diverse compositions. Following the towering sonic assemblage of Cosmos and, to a lesser extent, Versailles, Corona returned to a much more human scale here. The micro beats, built out of statics and clicks, made a notable return to the fore, especially on the first and fourth piece, but are much more interwoven with the instrumental textures, both treated and purely acoustic. In fact, the beat came in quite late on the first composition, and was subjected to a couple of false start, building momentum to drop out again, before finally rising for a substantial moment.

The second piece presented denoted a much more abstract and destructured context, as the three classical musicians played seemingly disconnected notes while Corona added even more disconcerting layers underneath. The only manifestation of Corona’s epic orchestral drones was to be found on the third piece, which seemed to gain in definition by the melodies played by BCN216, and while it never quite reached the dizzy heights of Cosmos I or II, it still benefited greatly of Coronas’s command of extremely dense and layered soundscapes. The last piece of the night, Louis XIV’s Demons, taken from the Versailles album, was given a different relief to the recorded version, with BCN216 taking on the string parts and smoothening them greatly while Corona was processing the harpsichord sections, accentuating the intense hue of the original by saturating the sound source, as to compensate for the action of the ensemble on the string section.

Meanwhile, Flicker jumped from one setting to the next, creating rather tasteful sceneries in the backdrop by playing on lights, in turn synchronising the music with what could have been flour seeping from a thieve, but projected on a circular screen, looked like snow storms caught by an early twentieth century moving image camera. At another point, he created beautiful light and shade pattern on screen by filming a plant set on a revolving tray, or, introducing some coloured elements, by interacting with a gas flame.

For this first major London performance with a orchestral formation, Fernando Corona certainly stepped up to the challenge by creating a set that was at once in keeping with his previous work and throwing pointers ahead to investigate the possibility of his ever expanding format. Whether any of the pieces performed that night will end in any recognisable shape or form on the next Murcof album is to be seen, but it is undoubtedly a platform for Corona to work from. He is, on this tour, probably more harvesting sounds than dispensing them.

Oren Marshall | Murcof | The Leaf Label

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. For this work, Corona sourced his sound exclusively from seventeenth century baroque instruments, from harpsichord and violin to viola da gamba and flutes. GetSound, the French collective behind the project, hired musicians specialised in baroque music who were asked to play a series of pieces by various baroque composers. These recordings were then pulled apart, dissected and reassembled in the form presented here, following a similar process to the one adopted for Cosmos.

Ordinarily grounded in the music of Arvo Pärt, Morton Feldman or György Ligeti, Corona’s work here references to an earlier form of classical music, which originated in Italy at the beginning of the seventeenth century and was very much in fashion during the reign of Louis XIV in France, in the latter part of the century. The contrast between Corona’s stark constructions, not to mention the sheer scale of his music, and the flourishes and exquisite refinement of his sources is at times striking, perhaps never more so than on A Lesson For The Future, Farewell To The Old Ways, which opens with a long evolving drone over which swirls the warm tones of a mezzo soprano. In the latter part of the track, the mood is moved from this thoroughly modern setting back onto more typically baroque ground with a complex part played on a harpsichord, but this section is treated with dense reverbs and filters to pollute its natural purity. On Louis XIV’s Demons, Corona orchestrates a dialogue between voluptuous lines on a viola da gamba and much more ascetic harpsichord tones, but it seems as the recording has, in both cases, been enhanced in such a way that one can feel the frictions of bow and the percussion of the hammers.

Elsewhere, the two poles of this particular work are brought together in less confrontational fashion, especially on the magnificent Spring In The Artificial Gardens, where isolated instruments which can be heard floating over the monumental drone which serves as backbone for the piece appear much more integrated to the soundscape. On the opening piece, Welcome To Versailles, solitary flutes breathe painfully through the vast space left almost entirely empty, wouldn’t it be for a regular thump, which provides a primitive rhythm, while plucked violin strings detract the attention away from the growing orchestral drone which develops in the background for a moment. The album concludes with the playful Lully’s “Turquerie” As Interpreted By An Advanced Script. The title itself gives some idea of the scope of the piece,

All throughout The Versailles Sessions, the magnificent forms that Fernando Corona introduced on Cosmos also inform the music here, but, placed against the lighter forms of the baroque movement, they appear more restrained, less imposing. Corona combines both genres with ease, and draws some new tonalities from this unusual setting, and while Cosmos represented a massive leap forward, Versailles takes him into yet new grounds. Corona’s work is becoming increasingly complex and fascinating, and this piece shows him at his most versatile and confident yet.

4.9/5

Murcof | The Leaf Label
Buy: CD | LP

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. With the performance scheduled for an 8.30 start that evening, the lucky few who had manage to put their hands on a ticket were allowed to wander through the various galleries in the South Building until then.

As the doors of the planetarium opened and the crowd took place in the small venue, a member of the planetarium talked for a moment about the fortieth anniversary of the first Sputnik flight. Then, as lights began to go off, allowing for a star, then two, then a handful, to become visible against the dome, a gentle hum, sounding strangely like an air conditioning unit rose. As random constellations were being identified, the characteristic string brushes of Cuerpo Celeste became more obvious, slowly building into the second part of the piece, with its sparks of church organ and choir, discreetly underlining the grandiose aspect of the visual display. The deep pulsating bass, crisp rhythmic backbone and orchestral swathes of Cielo signalled a move toward the solar system, with the nearest planets to the Earth taking centre stage, their respective orbit traced against the dark backdrop for a moment.

The show took a complete new dimension with the dense sound formations of Cosmos I. Whereas, until then, the music appeared as little more than a gentle accompaniment to the planetarium’s display, as Corona progressively added layer after layer of strings, with echoes of chimes and bells in the background, there was suddenly a feeling of intricate correlation between the vast cosmic stretches on display and the music. After reaching its peak, the music began to withdraw, leaving for a moment the display to take the lead by taking a psychotic turn as vector rendering of constellations materialised and shot to the centre of the dome, giving them for a moment 3D depth. Later, as a circular set of stars appeared, each identified with a red line across it, the tube formed by this twisted upon itself, and as the camera floated over this roller-coaster-like formation at increasing speed and the music became once again bigger and much more complex, the room appeared to spin out of control.

After a few minutes of further psychedelic imagery, the audience was brought back to the solar system to the emerging sound of Cosmos II. As the piece became louder and denser, planets appeared at the centre of the screen, first looking no more than pin points against a far away sun, then growing progressively bigger until they flew to the right or the left, disappearing at the back. Saturn, Jupiter, Pluto and the sun were last, making superb counterpoints to the now thick orchestral lava arranged by Corona, which eventually came to an abrupt end as planet Earth, with the Moon in tow, took glorious place in the sky, leaving the audience silenced until well after the lights had come back up.

Murcof | The Leaf Label | Peter Harrison Planetarium
Further readings: Murcof interview | 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. While there are still some manifestations of the micro-beats and clicks which formed the main rhythmic support throughout Martes, most prominently on Cielo and Cometa, it is a much leaner sound, stripped of clear electronic influence, that Corona applies here. Working from recordings of original classical instruments as opposed to samples, Corona deploys a much grainier template and develops increasingly vast expanses that allow him to step out of conventional electronic forms and into much less regimented forms. Pieces such as Cosmos I and II are sprawling textural reefs in which minute particle of sound find refuge to proliferate until they occupy much of the aural scope, developing into dense polytonal drones. Yet, these are everything but austere monolithic formations. Corona buries pulsating melodies deep within the layers of sound, like little hearts pumping blood to the most remote extremities of a body. This results in ever changing clouds where noise and melody are consolidated into one to deliver an almighty blow.

Cuerpo Celeste and Oort are more nuanced compositions. The former slowly develops from occasional floating swathes of strings into crashing waves of church organ and choir before dying on a bed of ambient noises, while the latter is a much more purely orchestral piece. If there are still some electronic references found on here, this closing piece takes Cosmos in a completely new direction and throws a probe into the unknown.

While it is clear with Cosmos that the music created by Fernando Corona may not have yet entirely completed its mutation from electronic-based to a much more multi-dimensional and organic medium, four of the six tracks collected here clearly set a very different agenda to the one he defined with Martes. Very much like Ulysses could be seen as a premise to the open forms developed on this album, these orchestral pieces may well be the first manifestation of a very different way for Corona to approach his music. Only Cielo and Cometa provide some grounding into the past and perhaps ensures a smooth transition between two entirely different musical forms. As it stands, Cosmos is a remarkable work which defies classification and challenges the mind beyond expectations.

Explore: Murcof | The Leaf Label
Buy: CD | LP | iTunes

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.

Fernando, first thank you very much for accepting to do this interview for the re-launch of themilkfactory. It’s been nearly two years since Remembranza was released. What have you been up to?

Hi there, well, I’ve been up to many things; I’ve done a couple of film soundtracks, travelling quite a bit and enjoying life in Barcelona, where I live now. And in my spare time I’ve been working on Cosmos until I finished it a couple months back. I actually started working on it almost right after I finished Remembranza, but it took me a while to finish it.

When I first interviewed you, Martes was just about to be released. Since, it has sold quite well and has established your name on the electronic scene. Have you been surprised by the reception the album received?

Of course, it was a very welcomed surprise, and now I’m here in Europe because of that, basically, not sure for how long though.

Your second album, Remembranza, seemed a lot more introvert than Martes, with less beats and more complex melodies. Was that a conscious move from you?

I knew at an abstract level that I wanted to do something different from Martes, based on the same aesthetic principals but taken to another level. It was not until I started working on it that I noticed it was becoming a bit more complex, melodic, harmonic, structure, rhythmic and content wise. I guess my life too was a bit complicated back then.

Remembranza was rumoured to be released with a DVD surround sound version but it was never released. What happened?

We did do some tests but it wasn’t working like we wanted it to, something was missing, so instead of forcing it we ended up reverting to CD. Someday I’ll make a DVD release, but it has to be organically conceived.

For your new album, Cosmos, which is released in a few weeks time, you seem to have changed the way you work quite considerably. The album sounds a lot ‘bigger’ than your previous recordings. Can you tell us how you worked on the new album?

As all my previous works, it was an organic progression rather than a planned one. I felt the need to depart a bit from traditional electronic/techno music, song structures that would allow me to express new things I wanted an output for. This is not quite as clearly obvious on tracks like Cielo or Cometa, but most of the album does have this new freedom of structure, inspired by classical music structures. I ended up with tracks like Cuerpo Celeste, Oort, Cosmos 1 and 2.

Cosmos was apparently originally set to be an EP. How did it evolve into a full length album?

The idea of upgrading to an album mainly came from Leaf, and I am very happy we took that decision. It started as a four-track EP and later I added two more tracks with a similar intention, the two tracks I added are the last two tracks on the album.

You regularly play live. How do you performances differ from the recordings, and which environment do you feel more at ease with?

It’s increasingly difficult to add much interactivity to my live set, specially for Cosmos, so at the moment, I am finding a way to both maintain more or less the original intention of the tracks while adding some flexibility and interactivity to make it more fun. And as for environments, I obviously prefer silent ones, that way people can appreciate the more subtle elements of the music. They are happy and I am happy. There’s no sense in playing in club or noisier environments, unless that’s the initial intention or it is viewed as a necessary component.

You started by releasing music on Static Discos, which I believe you co-founded, before signing with Leaf. Do you still get involved with the label?

More or less. I have disconnected a bit from the label to concentrate more on my work, but they know I am here when they need me. I still help with mastering and producing once in a while, and I landed a hand to Fax with a couple of gigs when he came to Europe last year.

Do you see being involved in producing, mastering and remixing as an important part of your work as a musician?

I’m not remixing much anymore, I find it increasingly difficult, but Fax is very prolific in that area. Of course when possible I do the occasional remix or production, because I truly believe in the new Mexican generation of musicians and we do this as a form of support.

This new generation of Mexican electronic artists and labels is very active in Mexico at the moment, although they remain pretty unknown over here. Do you think your success outside of Mexico has helped to raise the profile of the Mexican electronic scene?

I’m sure my case has shifted some attention to Mexico, there are a lot of unknown talents who deserve to be heard and whom people deserve to listen. A lot of very good net labels, like Mandorla, Cyan, Umor Rex, etc. It’s a matter of time and perseverance for them, to begin to be heard outside of Mexico, which they slowly are.

Your work seems to have inspired a few artists in recent years, with people like Deaf Center, and more particularly Erik Skodvin, with his own project, Svarte Greiner and the releases of his label, Miasmah. Are you aware of these, and how do you feel to know that your music influences other artists?

I know Deaf Center but not Erik. Yes, I am aware of my influence, some people have made it clear to me that I have influenced some of them, which of course is flattering, and more so when they take it to another level, when they add their own personal signature. One of the main reasons I do music is to transmit inspiration the way I receive it from other musicians, or from any other source for that matter, but as raw energy to be later sculpted in whatever form they wish.

When I first interviewed you, you said that you mostly work alone because you’re too obsessive, although you collaborated with Nashio Chavez, AKA Planktonman, for a couple of releases as Terrestre for which you each supplied about half of the tracks. How did you get to work with him, and did you actually collaborate on the music or was it more like split releases?

Yes I did say that. A few years have passed and now I’m much more relaxed. I’ve done a few other collaborations, for example with Francesco Tristano, Erick Truffaz, Talvin Singh, etc. As for Plankton Man, It was more of a split release than a collaboration. We each brought our own finished tracks to the table and we chose together which tracks would make it to the album

Are you planning to release more music as Terrestre following the releases with Planktonmnan and your Secondary Inspection album?

Not sure when or how, but I’m sure I will, sooner or later.

There have been a few videos made on your music, notably for Ulysses, Rostro and Memoria. Do you get involved with video artists when they work on one of your tracks?

Not much, once we agree to work together I tend to let them do whatever they want and feel. I might have some suggestions and give an idea or two, but sometimes it’s better to let it go and see how it comes back to you.

You’ve recently produced the soundtrack for a Mexican movie called La Sangre Illuminada (Enlightened Blood). How did you get involved with the project, and was the approach to this very different from your usual work?

It happened through a very good friend of mine from Mexico City with whom I have worked with in the past. He is Herminio Gutierrez, one of the most important music supervisors in the Mexican movie industry. He presented my work to director Ivan Avila and the rest was pure love.

Are you planning to release it as an album?

Yes we are, currently working on it. There is no specific date though, but it’s looking like early 2008.

Do you thing you will be working on more soundtracks in the future, and if yes, what kind of movies would you like to work on?

Well, movies with content, no specific style, as long as I really feel I can bring something good to the project and that the film communicates to me and facilitates the creative process.

What are your current projects?

I’ve got a couple of commission projects in the pipeline. I am currently doing some research for one of them which we will disclose as we have more solid info. We are also preparing for a planetarium tour in Europe for the release of Cosmos for autumn/winter 2007. There is another Mexican film in the near future as well, this time a thriller based on a fictional town in the Baja desert.

Murcof | The Leaf Label | Static Discos
Further reading: La Sangre Iluminada | Contemporary Music Production inteview