The Whisper Chipper

Multi-instrumentalists Marcelo Radulovich and Marco Fernandes have often collaborated in musical projects, in and outside the Trummerflora Collective. The Whisper Chipper, a collection of studio improvisations from late 1999 and early 2000, is their most ambient release yet. The heart of these four tracks consists of a field recording of a chipper/shredder. It is subdued to so many treatments that the listener will barely have the chance to identify it. The tape is equalized and looped in real time and accompanied by percussion, tamboura box (an analog drone generator), guitar, and radio. The resulting tapestry slowly reveals itself as a nice style of atmospheric noise art. This music is all textures. Things get a little noisier on the two-part title piece, but never cross the threshold where it would become aggressive. "Shipbuilding" and "The Internet" stay calmer, but also feel less involved. The use of radio waves adds a humorous touch — a woman talking about her armpits shatters any pretentiousness possibly conveyed by this otherwise serious music. If Radulovich and Fernandes' ideas deserve to be heard, this CD doesn't stand above the many similar ones delivered during the same period by a growing number of avant-garde artists turning to the lowercase esthetics of live electronics and textural sound art. ~ François Couture, Rovi