THE ARK

 Often, you can judge an album by how it appears; the cover, the graphics, the colours used. When I saw this it 
 looked fragile, gentle and ethereal. For a band to come from Portugal and offer something so refreshingly textured 
 is a delight. Bruno Pereira Pinto is a name I’d never come across, but I certainly know of him now thanks to 
 Sheffield’s Audiobulb record label.

 The term ambient has become a somewhat dirty genre, swamped by talentless tunesmiths trying to make a fast 
 buck. :papercutz have bucked the expectation with a simply dreamlike album that takes you away with it. 

 There are obvious comparisons to be made with such bands as The Cocteau Twins but that does them a 
 disservice. There is a hidden darkness tugging away at the gentle rhythms that gentle soothe you when listening
 to this album. 

 From the opening track, Ecantemento, the sounds that sweep away at you simply take you to somewhere much 
 cleaner, somewhere you want to be. The album works so well in the way the tracks are layered that you can feel 
 something building consistently behind it. It has a narrative, a course that it follows and pulls you with it. It allows 
 you to create a vision to go with the soundscape the music creates.

 Ignore what you’re supposed to see, or what you’re force fed by heavy rotation playlists to imagine. Just slip 
 away to when all you had was the music and your imagination and let yourself go.

 Remixing an entire album is a dangerous game; it can fall short of the original material and create something that 
 bears little resemblance to the original creation. Yet throughout Do Outro Lado Do Espelho, the feeling of respect 
 for Bruno shines through every remix on this album. By using Melissa Veras’ vocals as an anchor point on each 
 track, the sounds sweep around her like a gentle storm.

 From knowing nothing about this band or its driving force Pinto, I’m converted instantly by what I’ve heard in this 
 stunning collection and want to hear more from :papercutz. A perfect album for long summer days, you’ll have to 
 go a long way to hear a better collection of songs from Europe this year. A simply lovely album, I urge you to 
 ignore the ambient tag and allow yourself to immerse yourself in this sumptuous collection.

 RECORD COLLECTOR

 Based in Portugual, Papercutz’s gravitational centre is Bruno Miguel, who’s erected a musical flag that flutters in
 a clear ambient sky with a hint of cirrus jazz, trip-hop clouds and electro/acoustic lightning. Stitched together 
 with the same precision as Four Tet’s work, his debut album Lylac spun candy into the ears and was a critical
 success. Miguel has now allowed a number of fellow stuntmen to unpick his stitching and add their own 
 needlework in remixing and retooling tracks from this album. All We Have Left, retooled by Emanuele Errante,
 shuffles along like gamelin trills, while Gift Of Self (Simon Scott) is a delightful ambient ebb beneath the original 
 vocals, sounding like The Cranberries’ lead singer on vacation. Is Fading (Feu Follet) suggests the minimalist 
 river force of Phillip Glass arching across flat ground towards the sea, while Taylor Dupree’s Do Outro Lado Do
 Espelho ends gloriously with vocals repeating into infinity. Encanamendo is a new Miguel track – albeit recycling 
 an original LP vocal – with a piano clarity which recalls Conny Plank’s production, while Ultraviolets gets an 
 intergalactic morse-stroke from Croydon via Rameses III. Essential counterpoint to the original album.

 BOOMKAT

 Lovely set of shoegazy ambient remixes of Portuguese composer :Papercutz from Helios, Simon Scott, Taylor 
 Deupree, Rameses III, Autistici, Jasper TX and more. The source material comes from his 'Lylac' album, a set of 
 cinematically lush orchestrations neatly blending acoustic and electronic instrumentation with popwise vocals, 
 ripe for the revision session. Undoubtedly, the highlight of the show is Taylor Deupree's magical reweave of 
 the title track, taking the focus away from the vocal to foreground the strings amidst beautifully dispersed 
 electro-acoustic detailing. Chris Bissonette also impresses with the icily distant percussion of his 'Caught In A 
 Halo' rework almost touching on Thomas Köner territory, and the majestic Jasper TX mix of 'Broken Treasure' is 
 greatly worthy of your time.

 HEADPHONE COMMUTE

 Last year we reviewed Bruno Miguel’s debut as :papercutz – Lylac (Apegenine, 2008). Miguel followed up the 
 album with Ultravioleta Rmx’s on the same label. Two years later, Lylac still resonates… Do Outro Lado Do 
 Espelho  (translated as “from the other side of the looking glass”) is a compilation of reworks from yet another 
 amazing selection of artists. After releasing Lylac, Miguel was inspired to allow other artists to extract the 
 foundation beneath the songs and erect upon it a structure of their own interpretations. This is an ambitious 
 project with contributions from Helios, Emanuele Errante, Simon Scott, Taylor Deupree, Rameses III, Autistici, 
 Christopher Bissonnette and Jasper TX. Whew! Are you impressed? Here are twelve amazing tracks by 
 masters of ambient and modern classical composition! The Helios remix alone is worth your attention. 
 Taylor Deupree incorporates the vocals into a delicious composition of guitar chords and harmonic song 
 progression [didn't expect that from him], while Jasper TX scratches on the surface of peripheral hearing 
 with his slow paced filtered piano chords and swelling cinematic atmospheres.

 DROWNED IN SOUND

 On a significantly lower profile but no less fascinating tip, Portuguese ambient pop musician :Papercutz has 
 commissioned a remix album of his work which reads like a who’s who of contemporary drone. Remix records 
 are often, by their very nature, frustratingly inconsistent, but thankfully Do Outro Lado Do Espello represents a 
 notably coherent and engaging exception. More specifically, Jasper TX’s contribution provides a masterclass in 
 submerged, yet emotionally arresting, washes of sound, while the quite heart-breaking Simon Scott offering is 
 amongst the finest pieces of music I’ve heard this year; don’t let this one pass below your radar.

 THE MILK FACTORY

 Originally the project of Porto-based musician Bruno Miguel Pereira Pinto, :Papercutz soon expanded to incorporate
 vocalist Melissa Veras, with other musicians joining the pair for live performances. Released two years ago on 
 Canadian imprint Apegenine, Lylac, the band’s first album, bridged the gap between stark atmospheric electronica 
 and elegant contemporary pop music to create a superb hybrid, served by Pinto’s delicate blend of acoustic 
 instrumentation, electronic textures and beats on one side, and by Veras’s softly ethereal vocal tones, 
 occasionally reminiscent of Anneli Drecker, on the other. The album was followed by a single, Ultravioleta, which
 featured remixes by The Sight Below, Neotropic, Spandex and Signer. This is partly what encouraged Pinto to let 
 other musicians give their own vision of his work. The resulting collection of remixes, published on Audiobulb, 
 features reworks by Helios, Simon Scott, Taylor Deupree, He Can Jog, Autistici, Astroboy, Chris Bissonnette, 
 Jasper TX, Rameses III, Emanuele Errante and Feu Follet.

 Expectedly, the tone is somewhat subdued and, occasionally on the verge of reflective here, but, despite involving
 artists from very different horizons, this album is extremely consistent all the way through, and actually sits 
 comfortably next to Lylac by complementing it rather well. Indeed, while each artist interprets a given song in their 
 own way, bringing their own universe into that of :Papercutz, they all do so very respectfully of the original work 
 by retaining much of the layered aspect of songs. These are however for the most part radical reworkings, which 
 see soundscapes developed into lush new ambient forms or retract into spacious drones, while the voice is in turn
 wrapped in textures and treated as just another sound source, or isolated as primary organic element to increase
 its impact.

 On The Gift Of Self, Simon Scott focuses on expanding just a fraction of guitar tones into a rising drone around 
 which circles distant voices, while Taylor Deupree turns the somewhat stripped down Do Outro Lado Do Espelho
 into a rich and vivid soundtrack above which Veras’s voice appears as in suspension. He Can Jog brings things
 back down to earth for a moment with a stabbing distorted electric guitar on A Way To Emerge, but soon the tone
 softens again and allows for another dreamy space to develop, away from the marimbas and percussions of the
 original. Perhaps the most striking remixes are found toward the end, first with the breathy Astroboy version of
 Lost Boys, which retains the rhythmic pattern of the Lylac version, but dips it into a much hazier sound setting, 
 while he pushes the voice slightly deeper in the mix, then with Jasper TX’s magical take on Broken Treasure. 
 Building on a single looped chord progression by slowly adding delicate piano lines, then burying them under 
 layers of sound, Dag Rosenqvist delivers here a truly magnificent version.

 Remix projects can be difficult to carry through without impacting in one way or another on the original versions, 
 especially when an entire album is concerned. In the case of :Papercutz, the great respect with which each of
 the contributors treat Bruno Miguel Pereira Pinto’s delicate arrangements and Melissa Veras’s soft interpretation 
 ensures that both original and remixed versions can exist side by side, complement each other which retaining
  their own identity.

 TEXTURA

 It's wonderful to see Bruno Miguel's :papercutz project receive newfound exposure through the Audiobulb imprint
 and to see his electro-acoustic pop re-interpreted by an impressive cast of kindred spirits, with Helios, Simon 
 Scott, Taylor Deupree, Jasper TX, and Ramses III a sampling of the high-calibre names involved. A set of ambient-
 styled reworks of the last :papercutz album Lylac, the hour-long collection's title, Do outro lado do espelho, 
 translates from the Portugese as “on the other side of the looking glass.” Enough remains of Lylac's sound for the 
 listener new to Miguel's world to derive some sense of his :papercutz style. The vocals, marimbas, pianos, and 
 electronics heard in his originals aren't removed but instead added to and re-shaped by the contributors—each 
 one looking upon an original from the other side of his/her own respective glass. 

 Though the album title reads Lylac Ambient Reworks, the dozen tracks hardly hew to a single style. The album 
 alternates between electronic songs (restrained and extroverted) and soundscapes in such a way that a funky, 
 uptempo treatment (The Astroboy's “Lost Boys”) is followed by an instrumental soundscape (Jasper TX's stately 
 “Broken treasure”) of wholly different character. Rameses III's “Inside The Nimbus Machine” vocal-less makeover 
 of “Ultravioleta” takes a five-minute plunge into ambient soundscaping haze, and Chris Bissonnette's “Caught in a 
 Halo” becomes an entrancing, 21st-century gamelan setting. Simon Scott's remix of “The Gift of Self” is 
 unfortunately too short at two minutes to register as one of the album's more significant pieces, even if it is a 
 succinct example of Scott's ambient dreamscaping style. By contrast, Autistici introduces a funkier dimension to 
 the album in his “A Secret Search” version, while The Astroboy's “Lost Boys” even nods in a hip-hop direction in 
 the bumping groove that powers the vocal-based song. Beats, vocals, and stuttering voice fragments turn He Can 
 Jog's treatment of “A Way to Emerge” into a flickering and hyperactive three-minute ride. 

 Keith Kenniff has a habit of elevating any project he contributes to and it's no different in this case, as his 
 rapturous Helios version of “Lylac” offers one of the album's loveliest moments. The track embeds delicate female 
 vocals within an elegant, soul-stirring arrangement that exudes an epic shoegaze-like character during its slow 
 rise. Taylor Deupree's version of “Do outro lado do espelho” is powerfully affecting too. The 12k head gives the 
 original's emotive vocal dimension ample room to flower, and fashions an intoxicating piano- and harp-oriented 
 arrangment as a support for it. Miguel's own new :papercutz song “Encantamento” introduces the album so 
 splendidly, it makes one long for more original :papercutz material. Though he enriches the track with electronics 
 and serenading vocal effects (and tips his hat to Steve Reich in the mallet percussion patterns that patter 
 alongside the piece's lyrical melodies), piano is the central voice. At day's end, the project as a whole makes one
 long to hear more of Miguel's unaltered :papercutz material. 

 CYCLIC DEFROST

 As is often the case with significant albums in the general electronica field, a follow up album of remixes, re-
 interpretations or reworks follows. Do Outro Lado Do Espelho revisits Lylac though the of the ear of Bruno 
 Miguel whose selection of collaborators allows for this project to surpass the originals so soundly. Translated 
 from the Portuguese as ‘on the other side of the looking glass’, which is an apt enough metaphor for a translation 
 act, as if the remixers were actively manipulating the sound reflection of the original in different guise, presenting
 new faces and aspects to the ear of the beholder. 

 A remarkable group of artists they are Helios with a beatific version of Lylac, long dreamlike chords and textured
 ambient electronic undertones with a reverent and ponderous placement of the vocals high on attenuated effect.
 Taylor Dupree with the title track, displaying keen mixing skills, highlighting the original and heightening the 
 elements while maintaining a faux elegant simplicity. Jasper TX’s version of Broken Treasure provides a long 
 magisterial entrance to the track, before the fusion of elements heightens and forms a mist like ambience. Feu 
 Follet similarly holds …Is Fading with the presence once due to the organ as it holds and slightly alters chord and 
 tone with subtle effects gleaming through and eventually releasing at the end. Rameses III’s Inside the Nimbus 
 Machine version of Ultravioleta displays a high degree of abstraction from the original, opening with the repeated 
 record-esque scratched sample before wandering into streached out experimentation of the elements in a 
 discrete sonic plane of tonal ambience.

 :Papercutz’s movement to Audiobulb allows for a wider audience for this Portuguese artist work as indeed the 
 remix project solidifies as it makes connections within the contemporary experimental ambient network. The 
 album heightens the dreamlike nature of the originals, purposefully constructed iconic mythos, deliberately 
 utilising contemporary techniques and technology, along with the musical artists adept at their manipulation. It 
 is a reflected abstraction that will hold your ear transfixed long after the mirror makers acts.

 BARCODE

 Portuguese electro-acoustic pop group ‘:papercutz’ allow their debut album (Lylac) to be remixed by a host 
 of ambient/microsound artists. 

 Having not heard the original, I can only take these reinterpretations at face value; however, the key word
 appears to be ‘fluency’. As a collection of tracks, Do Outro Lado Do Espelho fits together seamlessly to provide 
 a raft of dreamy ambient music led by drifting piano, some textural programming and bouts of wandering female 
 vocals. 

 Few tracks stand head and shoulders above the rest, but the opening piano-piece Encantamento is ultra-
 soothing, leading into the reflective muse of Helios’s remix of Lylac.

 Most of the tracks on Do Outro Lado Do Espelho struggle to carry strong melodies and lack any discernable 
 rhythms, so the record often drifts into almost entirely ambient landscapes that only occasionally toy with 
 :papercutz supposed pop aesthetic.

 Better heard in its entirety, Do Outro Lado Do Espelho is perfect for hazy/lazy summer afternoons, where 
 intentions stretch little further than falling into a state of atmospherically induced comatose. If I have a criticism 
 of the record, it lies in its own lack of variety – unusual in a remix album.

 Audiobulb Is an exploratory music label designed to support the work of innovative artists. 


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