The second release from the duo of Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Tim Olive, and the debut release of Tim Olive's Kobe-based, artist-run and not-for-profit "845 Audio" label. 33 Bays is a studio album of two extended live improvisations recorded in Kyoto during Olive and Monteiro's 2009 tour of Japan. Their previous release, the 2011 Zeromoon album A Theory Of Possible Utterance, presented studio work from Osaka and Barcelona recorded in 2007.
Tim Olive came to recognition as a member of the 90s band Nimrod, fusing experimental sound, free-jazz, musique concrete and other approaches to outsider music with a Boredoms-like rock ethic (Olive himself describes the band as minimal-prog-noise-rock). Since the band's demise Olive moved to Kobe, Japan, a base of operations for his unique approach to improvisation, which he performs live internationally in various formations with artists including Jason Kahn, Katsura Mouri, Bunsho Nisikawa, Julie Rousse, Jeffrey Allport, Haco, &c. He has releases on a significant number of creative improvisation labels including EM Records, Celo, Evolving Ear, Test Tone Music, and Zeromoon.
Portugese-born Alfredo Costa Monteiro has for decades followed a fruitful integration of sound, visual art and visual poetry. In the early 90s he moved to Barcelona to pursue contemporary art as a member of espai 22a, an independent collective; through the early 2000s he was also a member of IBA col.lectiu d'improvisació. His background makes him particularly well suited to works in electroacoustic improvisation, interpretation of graphic scores, sound poetry, and sound theatre. His collaborations with other sound artists is an impressive list of modern audio explorers represented on labels including Absinthe, Creative Sources, Potlatch, Another Timbre. His regular projects include Cremaster with Ferran Fages, i treni inerti with Ruth Barberán, Atolón with Ferran Fages and Ruth Barberán, Astero with Juan Matos Capote, 300 basses with Jonas Kocher and Luca Venitucci, and duos with Pascal Battus, Tim Olive and Michel Doneda.
For 33 Bays Olive uses a prepared tabletop guitar to create his sounds, applying bows, sticks, and other physical objects to the instrument while manipulating the results through electronic processing. Monteiro uses electroacoustic devices of his own devising to create unique, other-worldly sounds and atmospheres. The album begins with a static burst and deep rumbling bass as the two embark on a journey of dark, slow moving, and thoughtful improvisation. A rich and detailed soundscape emerges, at times like electronic snakes raking their way through a feedback forest, while other times the listener seems to be traveling through epic ductworks in a perplexing factory. The contrasts in textures and timbre carry the improvisations, bringing a diverse and dynamic journey to the attentive listener. Olive and Monteiro's compatibility is found in a shared, unhurried approach to their work, allowing dramatic sounds and interventions to develop with dark tension, released into unexpected moments of peaceful beauty and clarity. This early example of their collaboration clarifies why the pair have continued their conversation live and on record.
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