"hey ya"
absurd #39
edition of 77
Joel Stern: feedback, microphones, electronics
Margarida Garcia: electric double bass
Anthony Guerra: electric guitar and electronics
recorded at ZDB, Lisboa - 3-4 december 2002
edited/mastered by joel stern, melbourne 2003

listen to the whole cd

available for purchase through Erstwhile

" I have been trying to unhinge sound for a long time, break down the components of 'music' and explore the root vibrations ....and this stuff is a perfect example of that."
Michael Donnelly -mymwly

If I understand correctely this is a trio recorded in Lisbon in 2002 of Joel Stern (feedback, microphone, electronics), Margarida Garcia (electric double bass) and Anthony Guerra (electric guitar and electronics). Just like the disc I reviewed last week with involvement of Stern and Guerra, this is another example of their capacities to improvise with literally anyone around. The way they work their way through the possibilities their sound tools have to offer, building a slow but not always steady crescendo, this is a highly scraping affair, scraping the bass, the guitar and the objects, working not really with overtones, but nevertheless a louder affair than the usual Stern/Guerra music. Strange packed with the CDR attached to a photo.
(FdW) - Vital Weekly

The three incher Hey Ya comes attached to a photograph of what could be somebody's outside toilet (well, it's certainly some kind of outhouse or shed) in what must be one of the most homemade of homemade releases you're ever likely to have come across. Don't be put off, though: this 20-minute slab of improv recorded in Lisbon in December 2002 and featuring bassist Margarida Garcia and visiting Aussies Anthony Guerra (guitar and electronics) and Joel Stern (feedback, microphones and electronics) is well worth hunting down. For some reason my disc displays the title "3 Sarabandes #3" when inserted into the computer, but the music it contains is about as far away from stately courtly dance as you can possibly get. Not too dissimilar from Phil Todd's work, in fact, the first half of the piece features a stable middle A which the musicians progressively destabilise with angry friction. The drone returns towards the end – a bowed low G this time (Garcia, I assume) – but Stern and Guerra won't let it go.
Dan Warbuton - Paris Transatlantic