Leave the world as it is es el nombre de una construcción paisajística compuesta con equipos de testeo y procedimientos analógicos que determinan su variedad tímbrica y rítmica. Sonidos que al momento de ser registrados individualmente podrían carecer de espacio y ser ruidosos, pero que en conjunto crean una espacialidad expansiva de contrapuntos. Un puntillismo que por momentos se concentra y por momentos se dilata en ilusorias conversaciones entretejidas.

Hábil creador de sonidos y de sus propios instrumentos electrónicos, Federico Musso es un explorador autodidacta de universos que genera con evidente soltura empleando medios auditivos y visuales por igual. Su ímpetu toma forma en dibujos, collages, presentaciones audiovisuales en solitario y acompañado, instalaciones sonoras y un caudal de videos en sus redes sociales.

En la única pista de Leave the world as it is Musso ha realizado una exploración compositiva abierta que espera permanezca sin explicación, aún sabiendo que la obra no puede escapar a la interpretación propia y ajena. Con marcado interés en producciones académicas de mitad del siglo veinte, e inspiración en obras pioneras y contemporáneas electroacústicas y electrónicas, Musso nivela sus sonidos y logra un paisaje en ebullición que extiende en mesetas altas, y que después modula hacia zonas calmas que se desvanecen.

[MoM] rec 2022

Leave the world as it is, a landscape construction composed of testing equipment tones and analogical procedures determining its timbre and rhythmic variety. Sounds that at the moment of being recorded individually could lack space and be noisy, but that as a whole create an expansive spatiality of counterpoints. A pointillism that concentrates and dilates in illusory interwoven conversations.

A skilled creator of sounds and his own electronic instruments, Federico Musso is a self-taught explorer of universes that he generates with clear fluency using auditory and visual means alike. His impetus takes shape in drawings, collages, solo and accompanied audiovisual presentations, sound installations, and a wealth of videos on his social networks.

In the single track Leave the world as it is Musso has made an open-ended compositional exploration that he hopes will remain unexplained, even though he knows that the work cannot escape his own and others' interpretation. With a marked interest in academic productions from the mid-twentieth century and inspiration from pioneering and contemporary electro-acoustic and electronic works, Musso levels his sounds and achieves a boiling landscape that extends into high plateaus, and then modulates towards calm zones that fade away.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

I'm not a destructive person, I don't like violence in any way, and by all means, I create.

I don’t like to think or play in a narrative way; I don't like the idea of progress either. All I aim for is an empty mind and an empty speech, forgettable. No after or before, to walk without leaving a trace. I create and play with self-made analog and digital instruments, vintage test equipment, and cheap out of tune instruments.

There's something astonishing about making an enormous noise with no physical effort involved, just twisting a knob. Making things valuable for what they are, not for what cost they have to achieve. This way of thinking in terms of achievement can have a tremendous impact on the way we choose.

The only destruction I like is the destruction of the "intention of order". We people (given we all create) can't escape transmitting our views in terms of what’s better or worse as we project the world in the back of our minds and soul. So it's a utopia to try not to say anything. It can be pretentious too, so I'll go by saying I make failed attempts and record the process.

I see myself as a Sisyphus and couldn't be more happy about it. This piece is an invitation to come to terms with our condition and stop for once feeling it's a disgrace that we are condemned to fail. To achieve, to finish, is to die. To be incomplete is to be alive.

ABOUT THE PIECE (something somewhat technical about it)

Imitating the work of the electronic music pioneers from the post-war era, I created this piece to study various old techniques of synthesis such as Karplus-strong analog modeling algorithm and modal synthesis, along with no-input mixer techniques and pinging filters. I also experimented with feedback and the “prohibited” connections (I even got a bit of smoke out of my transistor tester).

For the creation of this piece I devoted myself to studying Stockhausen's famous lectures about electronic music making, the works of Pauline Oliveros, Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, and more contemporary artists such as Hainbach, Look Mum No Computer (Sam Battle), and Sarah Belle Reid.

I started with the aim of only using analog electric sound devices sources and not adding traditional instruments into the mix as I wanted to explore music making and sound design far away from what is a good or bad performance. We’re so used to traditional instruments and all sorts of critics about performances that it is difficult to think about the instruments themselves and what they're capable of, to think in a way near to what Deleuze and Guattari proposed as rhizomatic. Working all analog using the digital workstation only to paste things together. I've got to say I broke this initial rule by adding a long passage of Lo-Fi sample loops made with an analog sampler I built in a sort of Brian Eno's music for airports homage.

The most important thing about this is that my work is not even close to being new nor original.

F. Musso, Montevideo 2022

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ABOUT THE COVER IMAGE

A stack of modified circuits (circuit bending), a DIY modular, and several people's ECGs send voltage signals to a cathode-ray television through its analog video input. Since the TV has no security protocols for "out-of-format messages"–as projectors and other digital systems do– it interprets the signals as what it thinks they are: video. The TV as a result of erratic behavior spits the cathode rays onto the screen according to the voltage and oscillation it receives.

Una pila de circuitos modificados (circuit bending), un modular DIY, y el electrocardiograma ECG de varias personas envían señales de voltaje a un televisor de rayos catódicos por su entrada de vídeo analógico. Dado que el televisor no tiene protocolos de seguridad para “mensajes que no están dentro del formato”–como tienen los proyectores y otros sistemas digitales–interpreta las señales como lo que cree que son: video. El televisor como resultado de un comportamiento errático escupe los rayos catódicos hacia la pantalla de acuerdo al voltaje y oscilación que recibe.