Three with Alfredo Costa Monteiro

It had been a while since I’d heard anything from Costa Monteiro, one of my favorite “discoveries” of the last several years, so I was pleased to recently come into possession of this trio of releases, though only the last one is “new”.

Neumatica
Alud
Creative Sources
CS070

Neumatica is Pablo Rega (homemade electronic devices) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (pick-ups on turntable). One of the aspects of Costa Monteiro’s work I’ve always enjoyed is how he somehow brings an inherent sense of musicality to almost anything he does, no matter how superficially abstract; there’s a sense of body, an organic feel to the music. It comes across here as well, though I assume Rega (a new name to me) is at least equally responsible. In some respects, “Alud” reminded me of the better work from the late, lamented Voice Crack, a similar hardscrabble veneer, but without the overt rhythmic elements that duo tended to fall back on. Here, all the harshness, the static, the bumps cohere into wonderfully imagistic soundscapes, the type of music that has me constantly listening around corners, seeking, and usually finding, more. A beautifully realized recording.

Creative Sources

Alfredo Costa Monteiro
Z=78 (pt:195.09)
Audiobot
BOT 161

A brief (23 minute) solo CDR, recorded about a month after the above disc (July, 2005) with Costa Monteiro once again utilizing pick-ups on turntable. It’s actually very similar and pretty much just as fine. One is now able to identify Alfredo’s contributions to the Neumatica album with a little more exactitude, in particular that great, spinning metallic sound, like a rotating platter of metal within other metal. Again, there’s a strong narrative drive, a clear sense of working through a kind of image-scape, a purposefulness that makes Monteiro’s work stand apart from many others. Sure, there’s a pause to collect his thoughts about halfway through, a reasonable enough lull given the circumstances, but he continues the piece with renewed vigor, a series of clangs, ringing tones and pneumatic drills and finishes things with a sublimely vicious, grinding drone. Fine stuff, indeed.

Audiobot – though I don’t see this disc listed

Alfredo Costa Monteiro
Allotropie
Bourbaki

Also recorded in 2005 but only recently released, “Allotropie” continues Costa Monteiro’s work with paper as a sound medium, heard previously on his “Paper Music” disc on Hazard. (The image above fails to do the packaging justice, but it’s an oversized sleeve with hand-cut horizontal slits) As before, without knowledge of the source, I daresay one would be hard-pressed to identify the whirlwind of sounds emerging from this disc as having anything remotely to do with paper. Presented as a single 20-minute track but divided into several discreet sections, he investigates very different sonic areas, from piercing high keens to breathy rumbles. At one point I was even wondering whether he’d set fire to something. The episodic nature of the disc inhibits the kind of powerful currents generated in the previous two, something I found a bit frustrating, but each portion, listened to on its own, has something unique and unusual to say.

bourbaki