Holterbach, Manu & Julia Eckhardt

Holterbach, Manu & Julia Eckhardt

Do-undo (in G Maze)

Helen Scarsdale Agency

***Do-Undo emerged out of Q-O2 Werkplaats, a sound-art laboratory of sorts based in Brussels, where JULIA ECKHARDT, one of the artistic directors, has built an archive of recordings of long-form viola pieces played exclusively in G. Sound-artist, field recordist, and ingenious instrument builder MANU HOLTERBACH, who has taken part in several Q-O2 residencies, reconstitutes her recordings which, on their own, seek the rich if occasionally dissonant overtones central to the minimalist works of Tony Conrad, Phill Niblock, Eliane Radigue, and Ellen Fullman. Holterbach populates his compositions with field recordings, turbulent textures and bristling movements that sympathetically weave amid the rasping drones from the viola. On a technical level, Holterbach’s field recordings on his composition “Two stasis made out of electricity”—an arc lamp, the Parisian subways, an electric powerplant—all naturally buzz with the same G of Eckhardt’s viola, without the benefit of digital pitch shifting. The resulting drones transcend conceptualism and strategic intent, and instead make no differentiation between the environment (man-made or otherwise) and the academy. Limited edition with letter-pressed covers.