EDITRafael Flores is from Spain, and has recorded a number of albums under his own name and also as Comando Bruno. Rafael Flores was also founder member of Diseño Corbusier band. Many collaboration works followed with like-minded musicians (Francisco Lopez, Zan Hoffman, Avant Dernieres Pensees, Seiei Jack Nakahara, Thomas Park, Lezrod to name a few). His music was released all over the world by such labels as Discos Esplendor Geometrico, Korm Plastics, Zero Cabal, Graf Haufen Tapes, BogArt, Tonspur Tapes, Zeromoon, Monochrome Vision, Turgid Animal, etc.
His whole work is milestone of experimental music and sound exploration, he produces audio/videoworks in a very much personal way too hard to define. Rafael Flores build a solid personal universe with an intelligent use of natural recordings and the methods of musique concrte, collages and plenty of other vanguard approaches, mixed with a particular sense of humour next to spirit of dada and surrealism.
One of the most active sound artists in the industrial music scene (international cassette network, experimental video, radio and mail art), he influenced new generations of experimental sound artists.
His most notorious feature is the intimate poetical touch in the soundworks, quite unusual for the industrial music scene.
From 1991 to 2001, Rafael Flores reduced musical activity, and was involved with videoart, releasing just a very limited soundworks as "friends only" private editions. After a long pause, he returns to editorial activity in 2002.
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RAFAEL FLORES "NUBES, COMETAS, RUMORES Y ORUGAS"
Rafael Flores’ Nubes, cometas, rumores y orugas presents more recent material, dating between 1994 and 2004 (tracks three to five, which are the most impressive of a very strong set). Like Grosor, Nubes immediately confronts the listener with a machinic process, an immense, fascinating grinding. Although first developed in relation to techno, electro and drum n’bass, Kodwo Eshun’s notion of sonic fiction[2] gives us a useful framework within which to understand this release. Applying a little poetic licence, we could even speculate that machines’ own fictions or fantasies might sound something like this, they certainly have a “starring role” in what are epics of the machine age. In Sanzoot a colossal but still detailed and textured sound gradually turns catastrophic and “orchestral” chords emerge from the dense sound field. The next track Sanzooot deploys a huge array of metallic sounds that become a focussed, sensual, looping rain of metal. This stands comparison with or even surpasses the best “metallic” tracks by Neubauten, Test Dept and other metal working groups. After this peak, Nubes slowly winds down into a series of desolate but still beguiling tone pieces, fading out with Luders, the sound of a “dying” machine performing its final operation.
(I.C.R.N. - Industrialised Culture Research Network)
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RAFAEL FLORES - "Nubes, Cometas, Rumores y Orugas"
Two films came to mind as I listened to this, both films along similar lines. One was called "CHUD", which stood for Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller; and the other I believe was titled "Death Line". Can't remember either of them that well, but remembered that both involved beings living in dark, dank places with a taste for human flesh.
Why do I start this review by mentioning these films? To kinda get you in the mood.
This album is a collection of atmospheric pieces - not all of them at all subtle. In fact, when it really lets rip, there is a dense, asphyxiating feel to the soundscapes here - a dense smoke-pall fug of churning noise that eats up the air and leaves the listener struggling to breathe - claustrophobic, to say the least. And that's one of the least disturbing numbers here.
Combining opaque noises with wide, metallic reverb, FLORES terraforms a very oppressive, dystopian world, rhythmic only because there are cyclic loops amidst the clumps of noise and sombre greylight mist-swirls. Its a journey through similar underworlds to those of LULL, yet where LULL crafted a dark mystery to his tractless caverns, FLORES takes us down, far down into this bowels of Hell via tight tunnels, following stinking, dripping pipes and arcane generators, travelling through blackness where comfort has been removed and the best you can hope for is a quick death. Much of this is machine music - pumping, rattling, growling mechanisms. When a true rhythm shows itself, it has a dehumanized feel, a robot march played as Sieg Heiling pistons pummel tortured flesh with automaton emotionlessness.
When we finally do emerge from the earth, assuming we will breathe the air once more, we find ourselves in a psycho-killer's slaughterhouse, with the sound of a storm playing on the corrugated, blood-rusted roof.
And, miracle on miracle, we actually escape from there, its only to find the world is coming to an end, amidst decaying siren calls and the patter of paper hearts.
Here you'll find some of the most evocative Industrial music around - music that actually affects the listener - music that describes the deep, damp, malign places you really would not like to find yourself. Each piece seems quite long, which also adds to the creeping terrors of darkness, dampness and closeness. This is not an album to relax to, although it knocks the spots off many of the other noise manipulators around.
The album brings together a selection of works spanning 1994-2004. A taster of the Man's music. Brave spirits might want to explore further, although he tends to put out limited editions. Industrial Music as its supposed to be.
(METAMORPHIC JOURNEYMAN) ____________________________________________
RAFAEL FLORES "NUBES, COMETAS, RUMORES Y ORUGAS" (CD by Monochrome Vision)
Flores, a respected experimental composer in more European circles perhaps, collects a thick gallery of works here, each staic in it's own feel, style, volume, texture and tone. The only consistent aspect shared between each of these five distinct piece is their monochromatic sound. Either one loop welded so the seam is indetectable, such as on Minoo 1, the first track, or a cubed cacophony of near-extreme noise on the mercifully timed 5 minute Sanzoot. It has an appeal and listenability somewhat greater than early Merzbow via Loop Panic or such. Flores isn't tearing the roof off by any means, but creating quite vibrant moments lasting anywhere from one minute to ten. Like taking the best scenes from a film, the most hyphotic moments, and looping them together. The selection of whats used is what makes Flores good at what he does. I find myself contained beautifully inside of whatever piece is playing when this is on. Content to be restrained under odd sounds and colors.
(Mainfold Records)
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RAFAEL FLORES "OLIVE DAYS" (CDR by Zeromoon)
That Rafael Flores is back on the music scene we knew, we reported about this in Vital Weekly 513. After a long period of silence, following an outburst of creativity in the mid eighties when he released music under the name Comando Bruno, he returned with a great CD for Monochrome Vision. The music on 'Olive Days' is utterly fresh, one part recorded from May to July this year and a live portion recorded in July 2006. I am sure he has up dated his equipment from whatever analogue stuff he was using before to computer treatments, but the input, say the field recordings, are still of a rather primitive kind. The first nine tracks are studio tracks, studies in taking one sound and moving them about for a while, shifting them up and down. The four live pieces didn't hardly differ from the studio, except that they sounded a little more roughly shaped. It's hard to say to where Flores gets his sound sources, but it still might be very simply the radio or taping electrical devices.
Although
'Olive Days' is not the same blow that 'Nubes Rumores/Cometas Y Orugas' was, it's still a lovely work of ambient industrial music.
(Frans de Waard / Vital Weekly 541)
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Rafael Flores "olive days"
reviewed by Sascha Renner
earlabs.org 8-9-2006
I discovered Rafael Flores two months ago, when I started to look around at myspace. He is from Andujar (Spain), and has recorded a number of albums since 1981, under his own name and also as Comando Bruno. Many collaboration works followed with like-minded musicians (Francisco Lopez, Zan Hoffman, Avant Dernieres Pensees, Seiei Jack Nakahara, Thomas Park, Lezrod to name a few).
From 1991 to 2001, Rafael Flores reduced musical activity, and was involved with video art, releasing just a very limited soundworks as "friends only" private editions. After a long pause, he returns to editorial activity in 2002.
His new album "olive days", released on the american label zeromoon is a minimalist one of its kind.
Most of the thirteen pieces manage to enthral with one, sometimes two single layers, which have been chosen carefully. This fine selection demonstrates Rafael's experience, adopted during the long time he is making sonic experiments now.
His sounds derive from field-recordings, sinus-tones, distorted crackles and drones, white noise and the like.
There is a strong red thread spinning continuously through his well structured pieces, which captures my attention.
In contrast to the first nine pieces, that were recorded and mixed in the studio, the last four tracks were recorded live at "atv" this year. In o-live1 it appears to me Rafael works with time stretched voice, the second live piece sounds like field-recordings of a room with machines running. o-live4 deals with heavy distorted crackles followed by a dry drone maybe derived from recorded wind.
All in all, Rafael created a very strong and coherent collection of skillfully structured work.
