Sarnadas - The Hum [2CD]

Format: 2 x CD
Catalogue No.: FD057
Barcode: 0725765590503
Release Date: 10 Jun 22
Genre: Drone/Ambient

2xCD Album – Die-cut cover w/ 2 printed inner sleeves - Sealed outer plastic sleeve

The Hum is the debut opus of Sarnadas, a Portuguese transdisciplinary artist working sound, image, space and everything in between. The 4 hour-plus long album, set to be released in two parts, is a direct consequence of his work with the disruptive artistic collective Favela Discos. By suspending some protocols but, most importantly, by suspending time itself in a seamless never-ending loop of layered melodies, Sarnadas allows himself to focus on developing new possibilities with the manipulation of the context created, rather than relying on the false necessity of constant output.

Over the 15 pieces of deeply moving, bright, but calming music, Sarnadas waives off rigid musical structures to loop, overdub, and erect layers of synth phrases which relate to each other in the enclosed environment of The Hum. The Porto-based musician prompts his search for melodic opulence in the seemingly still soundscape of organic repetitiveness, where the encounter plays as big of a role as controlled randomness and the mismatch of melodies, sounds and textures. Sarnadas's approach to music writing allows details to be generated, rather than forced into music, creating a state of conscious lethargy where dreaming plays an active role on the outcome of sound.

Recorded live throughout two days, the two-part album is reflective of Sarnadas's need to suspend time and figure out a new pathos by allowing himself to work endlessly on the single output of choice: a three-oscillator homemade synth constructed by his long-time collaborator Inês Castanheira (Well). This simple instrument, paired with a mixer and pedalboard paraphernalia, freed him to work loops, textures, brightness and chance into a compelling design of organic and mutating spaces.

Artist bio
Sarnadas is the most inquisitive moniker of João Sarnadas, a transdisciplinary artist working with sound, image, space, and everything in between. Based in Portugal's Porto, Sarnadas is an essential part of the city's cultural output, mostly thanks to his inventive work with arts collective Favela Discos and his cooperative projects (Well, Flamingos, José Pinhal Post-Mortem Experience), and a nationwide renown singer-songwriter with his solo output Coelho Radioactivo. As Sarnadas, the musician focuses his expression on the manipulation of sounds and contexts created through the looping of a simple, homemade synth, which he uses to work new melodic possibilities in seemingly still images. His latest opus The Hum, registered in two different albums, uses long phrases extended throughout long moments to explore the casual and the unpredictable without the restrictions of time urging the process.

Press / Promotion:
- PR + Radio campaign
- Social media campaign
- Presentation concerts

NEWS/PRESS

The Hum by Spencer Tomson, in The WIRE issue 441

"...by juxtaposing these slabs of tone against sections of delicate and affecting movement - such as halfway through the 25 minute "S Ildefonso Detaill" when everything is stripped back to reveal a vulnerable solo note that dances around the core before the layers are returned - these little pockets of respite deliver an uncanny and unexpected emotive impact."

The Hum – Album review por Rui Miguel Abreu

“The result is, in fact, a kind of portal that opens a passage to a timeless dimension, where everything seems to exist in suspension, without beginning or end. Listening to this album on headphones, in absolute darkness, can result in a somewhat hallucinating experience of reality displacement, with the synapses of our brain forming strange and exotic images of an unknown but promising world. There is a therapeutic side to the experience, which removes us without appeal or aggravation from the reality we inhabit and offers us a possibility of parentheses that we can fill with the purest of fantasies. If our imagination can sometimes build immense cathedrals made of that light that only projects itself in thought, this is the perfect music to echo inside their long naves, beneath their physically impossible vaults. Try it.” [translated from portuguese]

Interview with Sarnadas @ Out.Fest

Best National Album (Gonçalo Formiga e Zé Maldito)


RADIO:

Exòtica Ràdio (143/20) - Thanks, Mr. Prowse
Exòtica Ràdio

Radio Row - Robbie Judkins with a mix of DIY experimental music from Europe
Radio Row (WFMU1)

WFMU – Jack Mello – ‘A1 Alves D Veiga Slow Motion’
WFMU 2

WFMU – Jack Mello – ‘B3 S Ildefonso Detail’
WFMU 3


Track-list:
1. A1 Alves D Veiga Sequence
2. A2 S Ildefonso Dirge
3. A3 Rua D Viseu Sequence
4. B1 Rua D Viseu Sequencee
5. B2 S Ildefonso Scene
6. B3 S Ildefonso Detail