and/all1

Track List:

01. Bordeaux TNT 51:09

Long after the first two releases issued by Ground Fault and Edition Ellipsis,
and/OAR & Alluvial Recordings are pleased to present the final release in a
trilogy covering the sonic expeditions of the French location-specific
electro-acoustic trio Afflux (Eric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet & Eric Cordier).

This release summarises what was initially a 6 hour performance /
installation / radio broadcast that occurred at the TNT cultural centre in
Bordeaux, France. The TNT centre is situated inside a former shoe
manufacturing building. With several hundred meters of cables, the exterior
and interior of the building were recorded using several different condenser
and contact microphones, modified and mixed in real time on a 32 channel
mixing desk. Simultaneously, the live mix was played into the concert hall /
space using 8 channels for 8 loudspeakers. While the improvisers were on
the upper level, the audience was listening and walking around on the lower
level.

A different mix was broadcast on Ben Green's One Hour As... program on
Resonance FM. The final mix for the CD was edited by Eric La Casa.

Reviews
_________________________________________________________________________________

Smallfish (July 2006)
Afflux is a collaborative project by Eric Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric
La Casa and features a series of excerpts taken from a 6-hour installation /
live performance at the TNT cultural centre in Bordeaux. The artists created a
wonderful soundscape by recording the inner space of the building itself,
then manipulating and processing it in real-time. Dense, striking and full of
interesting, engaging moments it captures the sense of a busy space with
style and panache. There's a beauty here that becomes more and more
apparent with each listen. Superb.

Paris Transatlantic (July 2006)
The ability of a CD to satisfactorily recreate the experience of walking through
a sound installation is limited, to say the least, yet labels like Dale Lloyd's
and/OAR and Alluvial keep going against the odds, releasing important
documents that more often than not approach "masterpiece" status in this
particular area. In this instance, Eric Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La
Casa recorded a live performance at La Manufacture des Chaussures in
Bordeaux, six hours of sounds specifically conceived to be used in the inner
zones of Bordeaux's TNT Cultural Centre. The artists decided to mix
prerecorded sounds together with those of the urban surroundings,
extending cables throughout the Centre, installing condenser and contact
microphones and channelling everything to a mixing desk manned in real
time by La Casa, who modified and filtered the incoming results. The mix
was played in TNT's concert hall by eight speakers, the three men working
on the first floor of the building while people walked and listened on the
ground floor. But none of this theoretical babble will prepare you for the
uncertain weather of Bordeaux TNT, a 51-minute piece where the
manipulation is almost undetectable, all sounds maintaining their basic
attributes even in the most unpredictable moments. Screaming children and
barking dogs are engulfed in a nocturnal dimness amalgamating the noise
of traffic and the scary silence of a blind alley. The pulsing complex structure
of vibrations (Guionnet is credited with "long string recording devices") had
me thinking of Paul Panhuysen flying a miniature plane sitting on a café
terrasse. Every once in a while a passing car roars louder, yet everything is
organically linked in an obscure but perfectly functional mechanism of sonic
circulation, a perfect example of how such projects should be realized. Above
all, Afflux succeed in reminding us of the beauty of long-distance
urban/industrial murmur, inviting us to leave our mental windows open, to
change the air a little bit. (Massimo Ricci)

The Wire (June 2006)
Afflux is an ongoing collaboration of French electroacoustic sound
technicians who have habitually tackled large scale installations and
convoluted recording situations. For Bordeaux TNT, the trio of Eric Cordier,
Jean-Luc Guionnet, and Eric la Casa set up dozens of contact microphones
and long-stringed devices throughout the 5000 square metres of a factory in
Bordeaux which is now home to the TNT cultural centre. During a six hour
performance, they amplified and manipulated the resonant hums, drones,
and creakings inherent in the massive building. The trio extract the most
engaging sounds from the building itself, with their gestural pings, strokes,
and metallic clamour sounding futile in comparison. Nonetheless, this is a
sophisticated piece of sound art. (Jim Haynes)

Blow Up (May 2006)
La Casa (microfoni a contatto) con Eric Cordier (processing) e Jean-Luc
Guionnet (registrazione e mixing) sono gli Afflux, qui registrati nel materiale
sonoro relativo a una installazione effettuata al TNT di Bordeaux nel 2000.
La musica e piu vivace articolata rispetto aI 3", pur dipendendo
sostanzialmente da concretismi : glitch elettrici in comunella con scie
luminose di feedback tenerissimo e rumore digitale che si modula e adatta
con notevole efficacia. (Stefano I. Bianchi)

GAZ-ETA (May 2006)
Bordeaux TNT stanowi zamknięcie trylogii przedstawiającej dźwiękowe
pejzaże, które trio Eric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet i Eric Cordier nagrywało
w różnych rejonach Francji. Oczywiście pejzaże to szczególne, stanowiące
nie tyle dosłowny zapis, lecz próbę schwytania swoistego ducha miejsca,
często nieuchwytnego nieuzbrojonym uchem, bowiem Affluxowcy nie
ograniczają się tylko do rejestracji dźwięków, lecz często je przetwarzają,
bądź miksują z innymi. Na omawianej płycie przedstawiają fragment
słuchowiska, z którym przez sześć godzin mierzyli się goście centrum
kulturalnego TNT w Bordeaux. La Casa, Guionnet i Cordier rozmieścili
mikrofony wewnątrz (przede wszystkim w sali restauracyjnej) oraz na
zewnątrz budynku i improwizowali, przepuszczając modyfikowany dźwięk
przez 32-kanałowy stół mikserski do ośmiu głośników znajdujących się
piętro niżej. Centrum, które mieści się w budynku dawnej fabryki butów,
ulokowane w pobliżu torów kolejowych i szosy wydaje się być odpowiednim
miejscem na tego typu przedsięwzięcie nie tylko ze względu na to, że
dostarcza materiał dźwiękowy, ale i dzięki temu, że pozwala mu się
swobodnie rozchodzić.

Jak już wspomniałem cały koncert - a może lepsza byłaby nazwa instalacja,
bowiem muzycy nie byli obecni w sali koncertowej ? - trwał sześć godzin, zaś
Bordeaux TNT tylko pięćdziesiąt jeden minut, i m.in. dlatego (kolejnym
powodem była konieczność zgrania wszystkiego na dwie ścieżki) materiał
przeznaczony na płytę został na nowo zmiksowany przez Erica la Casa. Nie
będąc świadkiem koncertu, trudno mi ocenić, czy aby przy tej okazji materia
nie została specjalnie "zagęszczona" po to, by akcja rozgrywała się szybciej.
A dzieje się tu wiele i dzieje się bardzo ciekawie. Odgłosy zewnętrza (ptaki,
wiatr, pociągi, samochody, niezidentyfikowane trzaski itp.) i wnętrza (szmery,
brzęczenie, głosy, itd.) splecione ciasno w mocny dźwiękowy warkocz,
przenikają się, dopełniają, przekomarzają, przekrzykują - zwykłe dźwięki
poddane manipulacjom ukazują swoją drugą twarz, niesłyszaną wcześniej,
często zachwycając i drażniąc jednocześnie. Absorbujący uwagę, pełen
smakowitych detali i niezwykłych barw elektroakustyczny kolaż, soundscape
który podsumowuje tytuł metamkinowskiej serii Cinema pour l'oirrelle.
(Tadeusz Kosiek)

Touching Extremes (May 2006)
The TNT cultural centre in Bordeaux was filled by "several hundred meters of
cables" by Eric Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La Casa, who
proceeded to record the internal and external sonorities of the area placing a
large amount of condenser and contact microphones, whose captured
sounds were altered/processed and sent to a 32-channel mixer, then played
in the building through eight loudspeakers. The perfect balance reached by
Afflux is demonstrated by the beautiful results we achieved during
consecutive listening sessions: at a good level with windows closed, the
overall mix deploys a rapture of motors, trains and urban clattering
juxtaposing the sublime of a peripheral zone and the danger of walking
alone at night in the street. But if you let these recollections fuse with the
sounds of life coming from outside - which in my case included a cuckoo, a
distant jet and the faraway voices of a few Sunday country walkers among the
rest - you could even feel entitled to some sort of monastic pondering
alleviating this era's insecurity and mental tiredness. (Massimo Ricci)

Vital Weekly #521 Week 15 (March 2006)
Your ear is an excellent microphone. Imagine to be in a crowded place, close
your eyes and listen. You will pay attention to detailed sounds around you,
simply because your mind allows you to ignore the surrounding sounds,
those you don't want to hear. Afflux does something like that, except that they
use real microphones and contact microphones in a location. TNT cultural
centre in Bordeaux is apparently a big building with a bar/restaurant, offices,
concert space and a top floor. Afflux attached many contact microphones to
all of these places and they were connected to a 32 channel mixer and the
resultant mix was played over eight speakers in the concert half. The whole
concert lasted six hours. Afflux is the collaboration of Eric Cordier, Jean-Luc
Guionnet and Eric La Casa, all three composers in their own right. From the
six hours of recordings, Eric La Casa edited this fifty one minute CD, with just
one piece.

We hear sounds that we recognize, like people talking, the elevator, maybe
the coffee machine, but they all appear to be far away, or embedded in a
strange environment - maybe like we would hear this when we would inside
such a big environment ourselves, but now the ears don't select - the
selection has been made for us, by La Casa. Our ears are now focused on
this CD, and not the rain outside, or our own coffee machine. It makes this
into quite a strange listening affair, since we recognize the daily sounds that
we would always recognize but also all these other sounds. It makes this
however not an uneasy affair, but rather a fascinating one: what are these
sounds, and where are they going to? It's a highly captivating soundscape
that is captured here. Not so much with a 'story' or a 'composition', but
ambient music in the true meaning of the word: music made of the
ambience. Gorgeous music. (Frans de Waard)