Emanuele Errante - Time Elapsing Handheld (Karaoke Kalk)

The truth is, I've been meaning to review an album from Berlin's Karaoke Kalk for quite some time now. And it's not only because some of my favorite artists found a home on this label, like Hauschka for his debut Substantial (2004), Senking for a self-titled debut Senking (1998), and Dakota Suite for The End Of Trying (2009) and their amazing collection of remix artists for The Night Just Keeps Coming In (2010)... but because all of the unmentioned artists in its roster deserve to be heard. So it wasn't long before I couldn't resist talking about this amazing label any longer. Especially now that they signed a long time favorite of mine, Italian experimental musician, Emanuele Errante. Errante's music, first introduced to me through Apegenine's Migrations (2007), and then Somnia's Humus (2008), stands to be in its own sub-category of minimal ambient and experimental modern classical compositions. Lo-fi noises, scratching on the strings of a gently weeping guitar, clicking field recordings, and cascading ambient atmospheres, penetrate through the walls and carpet, raising dust and killing mites (perhaps I should lower the volume a bit). Whether consumed as a sonic installation or an abstract piece of sound art, Time Elapsing Handheld captures the moment with its seven titles, creating a path which is "Leaving The Nowhere" through the "Memoirs", a bit "Counterclockwise", sometimes "Later, Earlier", and always "Inner". Lush soundscapes loop and breathe through organic piano tones, guitar strums, and harp plucks, drowning in a generous sweep of synthetic strings, sampled noise, and dripping effects. Centered around the theme of passing time (as the album's title suggests), the music hypnotizes the listener, bringing him a little closer into the notion of now, and then subsides, letting him simply float among the sounds of rewinding moments. Be still... and feel that... that's right... Here's Errante with a few of his own words: "Time is a relative concept. The recording of a song makes infinite the moment of its execution. But man has not yet succeeded in inventing a device that can accelerate the passing of time." Hmm. I thought that a device for "accelerating the passing of time" was television, and that we're all more concerned with a device for decelerating the passing of time, but I'm not going to argue with the composer here. His Time Elapsing Handheld may be that device after all, without his knowing... So... shhhh! Don't say a word... and listen... The digital version of this release contains two more tracks, "Egostatsy" and "Hidden Sun". Oh, and in case this review was not sufficient in piquing your interest, it is worth mentioning that Simon Scott appears on the album, collaborating with Errante on a track, "Made To Give". Highly recommended for fans of Marsen Jules, Deaf Center, Rudi Arapahoe, and Rafael Anton Irisarri.

Be sure to read Interview with Emanuele Errante
Also, check out Emanuele Errante's Sound Postcard

maisound.com/errante | myspace.com/eerrante
karaokekalk.de | myspace.com/karaokekalk

Interview with Emanuele Errante

Your 2008 release Humus was an ambient masterpiece sprinkled with elements of electronica and IDM. In addition to synth soundscapes, your latest album features a lot more acoustic instruments. Tell us a bit about that progression.
In my works I have always tried to find the right balance between acoustic sounds and electronic sounds. The tracks of my previous album, "Migrations " and "Humus", consist of different themes played with acoustic instruments (piano, guitar, harmonica, flute, strings, sometimes even my voice), but each sound has been processed and loaded with effects. In "Time Elapsing Handheld" I choose to make my compositional approach clearer, by leaving the acoustic sounds mostly unchanged. Electronics give no limits to the creativity of a musician, but I think warmth and vibes of acoustic instruments are unique. That's why mine is a constant research for compromises between acoustic and electronic.

Where are some of the field recordings from? Is that windshield wipers I hear on "Later, Earlier"?
Most of the field recordings have been captured in rural contexts, in Central and Southern Italy. I'm glad you asked me this question about "Later, Earlier". I was in a little town near Terracina, at a friend's house on a hill. We were outside at night. Suddenly I hear a sound that repeats regularly, like a crafted loop. I asked my friend where that sound came from and he replied that it was a bug! I could not believe my ears. That sound had an incredible rhythm. I took my MicroTrack recorder and I captured it. I still do not know what kind of bug it is, but the sound you hear in "Later, Earlier " was not manipulated at all, it is exactly as is.

Tell us how you came upon collaborating with Simon Scott on "Made to Give".
With Simon we were in contact to explore the possibilities of live performances to propose together. The collaboration came about spontaneously. We started working on a draft that slowly took shape and became "Made to Give".

Let's talk about "time". First of all, what does the name behind the album "Time Elapsing Handheld" represent?
The concept behind it comes from a dream I had. In my dream I had a little time handheld that allowed me to make short time-jumps (10-15 minutes). When I woke up I thought that such an handheld would be precious for the human beings. Imagine you're stuck in the traffic: you just press a button and you're back home relaxing on your sopha. Imagine you're attending a very boring meeting: just press the button and you're suddenly in the bar drinking an after-work beer with your friends. Maybe people would be a little bit happier... And I thought that, after all, music is a sort of time elapsing handheld because while listening to it you get completely lost for the whole length of the album and when you "wake up" you realize that music gave you the capability to "freeze" a certain moment of your life and to "wake up" in a different situation, with a different mood and with different feelings.

What are your thoughts on passing time, and what are the proper tools for altering its perceived rate?
We all would like to stop time, but in certain situations we would pay to make it go faster. Both factors are obviously impossible to get so we use little tricks to cheat time and altering its rate according to our needs. I don't think it's the case to afford deep physical and philosophical concepts and their resulting paradox here but I can tell you that music is absolutely my "time machine", my main mean to cancel time. The hardest thing to talk about is the effect that canceling time might produce, because if I freeze a certain moment of my life by any means, when I get the clock to start running again my perception is that the clock hands run faster than before...

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Read the entire interview on Headphone Commute

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Interview with Emanuele Errante by HC. Photography by Silvano Caiazzo.

maisound.com/errante | myspace.com/eerrante

Also on Headphone Commute

• Time Elapsing Handheld
• Emanuele Errante's Sound Postcard