Object Models
Taking a broad, yet calculated approach to both the sound and composition of its elements. While retaining much of the pop-music track length credo of ‘Let’s be Happy', the spacing between parts has become less structured, focusing more on the breathability of track in full. Never fully silent, there is now just as much focus on the quiet parts as the loud.
While a few of these pieces are about prior and current neurological experiences, the overall focus of ‘Object Models’ is pinpointed on personality changes due to neurological damage. Socially, having to appear the same while old versions of the original are worn-out photocopies; a card-catalogue. The dusty Rolodex®. Which 'face' to choose in which social situation, and the occasional errors; a misplaced index card.
Neuro... No Neuro
Neuro... No Neuro (NNN) is a moniker of the electronic musician Kirk Markarian, an abstract music producer/synthesist residing in the arid desert of Tucson, Arizona. Due to the lack of rain during 2020, he hasn’t done much yard work.
Reviews
Twisted Soul
In a similar way to his last album (‘Let’s be Happy’), this rides on a wave of bleeps, clicks, and glitches but also offers moments of quiet where tracks suddenly stop and move out of focus to keep the listener guessing. From spacious, floaty productions, to harsh abstract electronics, this offering is a great listen from front to back.
Igloo Magazine
Having a fresh view on life after surviving three brain surgeries, Neuro…No Neuro (aka Tucson, Arizona-based Kirk Markarian) reflects on the experience of neurological change. Utilizing synthesizers and various machinery, he recreates vivid sound sculptures depicting the side effects of brain surgery and radiation treatment. The results are confounding and inviting.
Through abstract clicks’n cuts, microscopic blips’n bleeps, and layers upon layers of subdued ambient whirs, Object Models displays a whole new sonic space, one that expands and contracts via minimalist methods. Static fizz-fuzz bits and pieces slide across dry sand dunes while low-profile tones and drones wisp by like classic Pole soundscaping crackles crossing with Oval’s CD skipping crispness. The main ingredient NNN adds to these dozen delicate micro bubbles is an auditory and theatrical lullaby of sorts—one that seamlessly merges clinical musical shapes with flowing atmospheric momentum.
Link to original article > HERE
The Slow Music Movement
Give you home a sonic makeover & transform it into a futuristic New Age cult temple. Just hit play & summon the bleeps, hits, electroblur and otherworldly ambient whir of Neuro... No Neuro's, fine and pleasingly unhinged new LP for Sheffield's Audiobulb.
Ambient Landscape
This new album from electronic sound artist Neuro…No Neuro could almost be categorized as an album of short, electronic stories. The tracks fit together cohesively and I find it extremely listenable in its entirety (and that from someone who rarely listens to entire albums; mostly previewing tracks for inclusion on upcoming mix projects).
Kirk (the mastermind behind Neuro…No Neuro) weaves in subtle tapestries of electronica: landscapes of pops, quirky shifts & layers of sonic carpeting that blend, seamlessly into one another . . . as well as the next track.
This body of work represents a slightly new aural direction for Mr. Markarian — but damned if I can tell you exactly how & why: be it the progressive maturation of the composer, a relaxing of overall sound & structure or an intentional & deliberate new approach to shaping his craft . . . it works; and it works very well!
My 2 favorites from this Neuro collective are ‘All the Missing Words’ & ‘Calcified’ (in fact, both will more than likely appear on an end-of-year ambient/electronic mix). They lay within a bed of quiet, sonic solitude and whisper their nuanced changes with electronic tinkering that moves the respective compositions forward like the trim-tab of a great ship of state.
I don’t know this to be the case, but it’s as if Kirk created several, smaller audio files & then grafted them together with a surgeon’s skill until they narrate their own short story – but one that, like James Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’, play individually as well as to the work in whole.
‘Object Models’ (out next week on Audiobulb) is at once imaginative, introspective and, most noticeably . . . IMMERSIVE. Brief lengths of landscape, drawing the listener in while allowing for independent thought even as you’re enjoying the electronic gear-shifting which passes by almost imperceptibly, then grabs your attention once again (which is why it stands up to repeated listening).
It’s like a movie you’re enjoying . . . but you’re not 100% conscious as to “why”.
Link to original article > HERE
Bandcamp Feedback
1. Object Models treats sound like plastic, delirious and supple, noise moves in and out of focus, creating spells of music that enrapture the listener. Nodding to, but moving past, labels like vaporwave, glitch, this is music that inspires thoughtful engagement, at once foregrounding the object-ness of the product category we call music while also revelling in the range created by pinging between familiarity and the unknown. Favorite track: Object Models. (Jason Christie)
2. Object Models features even more adventurous sound design than previous NNN releases, incorporating a host of more traditional instrumental elements alongside its beautifully abstract electronic contributions. Time and space also play a vital part in the proceedings, from glitch-looping to sudden shifts between near and far, open and shut, pause and effect. I'm enjoying these fresh new sonic landscapes on continuous loop! (Martin Walker)