Mem1 + Stephen Vitiello: Age of Insects

This latest project — which combines field recordings with both analog and digital electronic instruments — spawned from a series of meetings between Mark and Laura Cetyl in Stephen Vitiello's Viginia studio between May 2009 and January 2010. The sound pieces in question, organized into seven separate tracks, are carefully prepared but show only minimal editing and post-production calibrations, since the primary aim of the authors was to capture the very act of giving life and "substance" to the "pieces" themselves. The mix of spacey frequencies and teeming organic glitches are unraveled among insectoid creaks and mixed with flickers, sprays, signal variations, and gritty, immaterial sounds. Drones and volume jumps dominate, with white noise, a cavernous bass and hums interspersed with metallic soundbites and tremulous passages. This isn't all; in the plethora of materials and techniques used, gurgles, feedback, vintage sounds and futuristic digressions also emerge. Here are uncomfortable alien soundscapes, totally engaging in their bright stellar aplomb. –Aurelio Cianciotta

– Neural (2011)