Gintas K is a prolific composer/sound artist of hard digital computer music with "small melodies". As I write there are over 30 albums of his on Spotify although Acousma Light is not one of them. It is, however, streamable on Bandcamp.
Writing in The Wire back in 2103, Julian Cowley stated that Lithuaninan experimentalists, of which Gintas Kraptavičius is assuredly one, specialize in producing "sound beyond the conventional terms of music".
This should prepare you for this sonic onslaught lasting 72 minutes that is challenging yet curiously intriguing. Rest assured, though, the only motive for playing this at a dinner party would be to bring the evening to a rapid conclusion.
The succession of gurgling bleeps and glitchy burps will, for casual listeners at least, be a test of endurance.
In anticipation of the cry 'That's not music, that's noise!', the press release takes the high ground and links what we hear to the term 'acoustmatique' coined by French composer and pioneer of musique concrète, Pierre Schaeffer. This term derives from the Greek word 'akousmatikoi', meaning 'the hearers', which Pythagoras used to describe his uninitiated disciples.
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For his uninitiated listeners, Gintas describes the composition process as one whereby "sound components are grained into sonic particles" after which "the recorded music is organized into a structure that gradually evolves into a crystallized form". The resulting pieces are anonymously labelled as Episodes 1 through to 9.
Aspirants of Pythagoras apparently took a vow of silence for five years while listening to his teaching. Many will wish Gintas K had followed their example and opted for silence rather than sound.
Nevertheless, there are perverse pleasures in store for those select few brave enough to listen to this album from start to finish .
Acousma Light at Bandcamp
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