Sarnadas - The Humm [2CD]

Format: 2 x CD
Catalogue No.: FD058
Barcode: 0725765590510
Release Date: 10 Jun 22
Genre: Drone/Ambient

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

Sarnadas, a multi-disciplinary artist based in Porto, returns with the second instalment of his drone opus The Hum.

Titled The Humm, this second long-play album follows the first record, having resulted from the same two-day, extensive and intensive composing sessions during which the producer created 8 hours of layered, ambient music. Sarnadas focused his endeavour on a stripped-down setup comprised of just a homemade synth, a mixer and some effects pedals, generating various layers of sound and manipulating their overlapping and apparently random relationship to create eight pieces of spacial, dreamy music, with ever-changing organic plasticity.

The concept behind the double album The Hum lies in the new moniker Sarnadas, also known for his singer-songwriter Coelho Radiactivo persona, or as João Sarnadas, one of Favela collective’s spearheads. As Sarnadas, the musician focus on a more melodic approach to sound, unravelling new possibilities by relating simple elements, shifting over time and space. Drawing inspiration from the idea of cities humming their own tunes, as an expression of all things urban playing in the background, The Hum series describes Porto and Aveiro (Sarnadas’s native city) pulsing lives through nuanced drones.

Over the first long-play, Sarnadas created a series of bleak ambient pieces, with saturated sounds overwhelming senses as a means to create images surpassing the reality of each city. The Humm, on the other hand, all pieces of music shift from a lucid-dream feeling to a sensation closer to waking up, soberer and graced by dawn, where less abrasive layers allow the interpretation of clearer forms and images.

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.

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 Humm in the list of best of the month by A Cabine
“After presenting us with documentation of the experimental scene in Porto in the form of “In Trux We Pux”, Favela Discos is still going strong with a brilliant album by João Sarnadas, one of the bosses of the label who formerly signed music as Coelho Radioativo. “The Humm” follows the first part of “The Hum” and is just as delicious. Based on a single synthesizer with three oscillators assembled by Inês Castanheira, Sarnadas once again shows the result of two days of recording: a long and emotional record, marked by a chilling drone ambience that allows you to dream, think and travel. Us and the music, to the point where we are alienated from time and space.” [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. C1 Alves D Veiga Slow Motion
2. C2 Hintze Ribeiro Drive
3. C3 M Bombarda Detail
4. C4 M Bombarda Transmission
5. D1 M Bombarda Transmissionn
6. D2 Maternidade Detail
7. D3 Maternidade Detaill