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alm 83
david velez
"alku"
21 january 2012

on february 2010 i was commissioned to create a sound piece that would be played during the exhibition "homenaje al planeta" ("tribute to the planet") by liliana duran.
the paintings have all nature imagery as she is raising concern towards the planet and its ecosystem through this exhibition.*
the piece looks to combine field recordings and more musical elements such as drones and sines pursuing some sort of score for the visitors that would attend the exhibition.
the piece was composed between february and april of 2010.
thanks to jean-marc, lina, juan, james, pedro, daniel, james wyness, christopher, chris, ennio and simon.
photography : delphine ancelle-b.

DAVID VELEZ is a colombian sound artist who creates soundscapes mainly based on field recordings. this piece was composed as a soundtrack for a painting exhibition named "homenaje al planeta" ("tribute to the planet") by liliana duran. here, DAVID tried to combine field recordings with more musical elements such as deep drones and more piercing sines.
co-curator of the excellent IMPULSIVE HABITAT netlabel devoted to field recordings, DAVID VELEZ past works were published on many international labels like test tube, ripples recordings (a collaboration with james mcdougall), semperflorens (with juan josé calarco), mystery sea, siridisc, conv or audio gourmet.

tracklisting :
1. alku

reviews :

Vital Weekly 837
A new trio of releases on Taalem, a label specialized in 3" CDRs of drone music and all things otherwise atmospheric. [...]
From Colombia but residing in New York is David Velez, whose 'Alku' was composed as a soundtrack to painting exhibition called 'Homenaje Al Planeta' which means 'tribute to the planet'. Velez uses  field recordings and 'deep drones' along with some high pitched, sine wave like sounds. Rather than being thoroughly composed this seems to me a work that is made along as things go, rather than being carefully decided upon. I am not sure why I think this, its more a feeling I have, rather than a very conscious thing. It just seems a bit unfocussed I think. That doesn't mean I don't like this piece, far from it. It moves nicely around and sometimes has things in focus and sometimes not at all. This is, I guess, what ambient music should be all about: to create an environment which works in delicate way for the listener. As such I think Velez succeeded pretty well. (FdW)

Culture Is Not Your Friend!
It is late. It is hot. I am sitting with my face close enough to touch the ventilator and concentrate on relaxing my tired eyes, absorbing the stale wind that hits my face and immersing in the sounds of David Velez, which plays over and over its twenty minutes long piece until the point I have no idea if I am listening to the beginning or the end. It is collapsing on me. The world, the pain and the metallic sounds in Alku, which hit and resonate through each other. I am distracted only by momentary loss of my equilibrium through the total yield to the claustrophobic closure through the monolithic sounds of this 3"CDr. The ghost footsteps, or something which sounds similar, seem so close to me when compared to the vague, distant drones that keep this track breathing. My head is close to the ventilator in my room, the metallic scratches come either from it or from my speakers, at this point I don’t know anymore.
I am torn between two perspectives over this mini album. One through which I am listening to Velez building layers over layers like a massive tower of Babylon or a wall circling the city of Dis, while the other perspective clearly shows the entire musical world of Alku collapsing. The center cannot hold, and the magnificent sounds swirl and crash into each other, slowly, oh so slowly.
Through diverse and demanding sounds, Velez realizes an industrial twilight around the ears of the listener. Alku remains an aural hologram that vanishes as soon as I press stop, but parts of it grows on you even after that point. That is the magic and Alku is full of it.

The Field Reporter
Alone, but not isolated.
Sound creation in its initial form is destined to a short-lived exposure.
Artist David Velez chose to rework this material and crystallise it as a 3"CD release on Taâlem records, a blest encounter to my ears. As my mind wanders, floating from the show room to my intimacy, I let the sounds catch my attention little by little.
Never mind the proportion of ‘concrete’, reworked, generated or slowed down sounds, I try to let the discourse on technique aside to preserve my attention and appreciate this piece of atmospheric and earthly elements. David Velez choses with great talent to confront frictions and interlaced material and surely knows how to bring those slippings and tensions to their breaking point.
I find myself in the poetry and space once evoked by Gaston Bachelard, alone but not lonely, a wandering shape through a lush forest filled with life surrounding me and encouraging me to be a part of it for the duration of the piece and again later, like a never ending echo to have me come back and live here. (Flavien Gillié, translated by LAAG)