Ralph Hopper:
-Is 'Mimicry' a re-imagining of the earlier 'M'? It appears that 'M' is computer music and that 'Mimicry' is also computer music but in a live performance if I have that right and thus I'm thinking that your are 'mimicking' the earlier release. Maybe not?
Gintas K:
-well, when you said so it looks quite logical. Music inside is a bit similar. But in fact it is not. It is made using a different vst plugins.
M is made from live played files, but later from them is made a collage.
Mimicry is made just from real time made files, without any overdub.
reviews:
M by Gintas K
BY TJ NORRIS ON FEBRUARY 25, 2019
GK Rec (CD/DL)
toneshift.net/2019/02/25/m-by-gintas-k/
In following Gintas K‘s career trajectory over a decade plus I’ve noticed a keen focus on the conceptual bent of his approach, on M he’s in top form, delivering a slightly harder, more granulated sound overall. For all intense purposes, there are no overdubs here, and the record is broken into two parts: tracks 1-6 are numbered 1m to 6m; and tracks 7-17 are titled Mimicry1 through Mimicry11. And right from the start it’s a jumble of electroacoustic bounce and frenzy that almost sounds as if it’s empowered by a voice signal of some sort. A plethora of bleeps, bloops and twisted mishigas gone awry, but somehow Gintas contains the chaos with dog-whistle pitch and variables that would make any prolific thereminist blush.
This coagulated fusion is fascinatingly bent. Though it sounds as if someone is tinkering with the soft belly of a pinball machine’s innards the results are both animated and perplexing. When things get really chunky the physical synthesis breaks down gradually, and at this point I imagine the artist acting and reacting to experiments and distortions therein in stride, almost like a headcleaner. If ever there whether was a time to utilize the phrase “alternative” it is right here, fair listener. Some harsh noise records repel me so much I just can’t be bothered, honestly, but this has the innate ability to engage your senses, the effect is quite tingling. Oh, and this is just track one (which runs nearly 18 mins).
As the digital sounds flicker like a sci-fi console the ear is drawn elsewhere, fluctuating between the hiss and stupefaction imbued by the highs/lows, the silences and the din. The composer seems to be addressing some form of corruption and disconnect here, far more “concrete” than his previous works. The works parallel forms of minimal and maximal somehow, an uncommon blend.
Kraptavicius captures this fidgety and uncomfortable space in pure electronic music where many would iron the seams, but instead he inverts to expose the guts, and in this case it works, especially on 3m where there seems to be a quasi middle eastern melody deposed behind the fractals. There’s much tension, much secrecy, even with such exposure. And so on, he moves through this electronic mirage, switches engaged, knobs twisted occasionally to highlight playful tonalities in limbo. All comes to a head on 6m where much of the vividly drawn lines have been suspended to offer a reduced set of microchords that meander in the shadows.
As we move to the eleven short pieces making up the Mimicry suite (all played live), it’s sounds as though the performer is wearing his microphone while tumbling around, the open signal going in and out, all cut-up. It’s disquieting as the muffled flailing ensues. The physical sounds have the quality as if taunting the listener in a liquified state that is riveting (literally). The sounds become more and more phased, delivered in chunks, like slabs of beef. It’s something altogether new for the artist, but comes off quite earnest and indelicate at various intervals. Behind the pulverizing electro-dalliances there are hidden passages of drone melody such as that which rises from the ashes on Mimicry4, the highlight of this portion of the record. It is as though someone is trying to pry open a door to get back to some semblance of civilization.
For all the intermittent, industrial unpleasantries scattered on Mimicry, there are amply as many percolating curiousities to counter-balance the clangor. In fact, on Mimicry9 it sounds like a conductor readying for a performance at his/her lectern, repeating the same action of preparing their place for performance, over and over. It’s one of those moments that sounds like a false start that will never end, in this light amusing and so meta from the angle of any musician or noisemaker. Now, let’s begin (by observing the end, of this record).
In the final two tracks Mimicry10 – Mimicry11 Gintas K ratchets up the literal twists and churns to reveal the continuing mix of discombobulation. The minor, tweaky percussion lends well to the rotating effects, like flipping endlessly through a rolodex at high speed as if rummaging through a card catalogue at the library. The quality of the recording is discerning, especially because it makes no direct attempt at resolving itself, leaving the ends open to perspective interpretation, thus offering a Dadaist accumulation not unlike an exquisite corpse of sorts.
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Artist: Gintas K (@)
Title: M
Format: CD
Label: gk rec. (@)
Rated: *****
chaindlk.com/reviews/?id=10883&fbclid=IwAR3f_JlBzL6fKMga_KelOiBFf89Wny1GlU_8MNWIbaUz6l8rmoYsjbHhwpU
Gintas Kraptaviius is a Lithuanian composer whose opus stands along the path of certain experimental music whose macro-category is microsound. Rather than being based on samples or loops, his music is based on small sounds which seems generated by tone or noise generators and their duration is usually small enough to be perceived as an isolated sound cell as a note.
This release collects two pieces: "M", in six sections, from 2012 and "Mimicry", from 2017, is in eleven sections. "M" starts with a long first section which with his almost eighteen minutes is more than half of the total length, which oscillates between complex noisy parts without any intention to create and quieter ones based on carefully crafted tones. Even when, as in the second or in the last section, fragments of melody appears, this is balanced by the other section where the shaping of sound and the overall architecture of sound events is prevalent. "Mimicry" is a more fragmented track as even rhythmic patterns appear, as in the third section, or drone, as in the fourth one, and pure silence as background, as in the ninth; the use of computer's possibility to create sounds is matched by a concept of structure where event seems more important than path.
The overall result is a complex auditory experience where the listener is called to a effort of comprehension towards something whose form is apparently chaotic and distant from the comforting cliché of the genre. It's not for everyone but it's a rewarding listening.
Posted by Andrea Piran
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Gintas K. M (2019). Recenzija. MIMIKRIŠKO GARSYNO TURTAI
Mindaugas Peleckis
2019 m. Kovo 31 d., 16:11
www.radikaliai.lt/garsas-sound/4472-gintas-k-m-2019-recenzija?fbclid=IwAR1Z2SuPBABhBJXQ8NWAzWA8iiCPr2PE4yT9N9ONfBVd-4dyYHOIg0h_ml8
Gintas K yra vienas tų muzikantų, kurių albumų laukiu, juolab, žinodamas jo produktyvumą (ačiū Dievui, ne hiperproduktyvumą - jis neleidžia albumų šimtais), žinau ir tai, kad sulauksiu bent vieno ar dviejų per metus. Ir štai, pagaliau, vasario aštuonioliktąją pasirodė naujas Ginto K opusas M. Pažvelkime į jį plačiau.
Gintas K. M (2019). Recenzija. MIMIKRIŠKO GARSYNO TURTAI
Man asmeniškai Gintas K yra tas žmogus, kuris prieš maždaug keturiolika metų atvedė mane į eksperimentinės muzikos pasaulį (kažkiek su juo buvau susipažinęs, tačiau jis panardino į gelmes), todėl būti labai objektyviu vargu ar pavyks, tačiau pasistengsiu.
Naujasis albumas (nė nebandysiu skaičiuoti, kelintas, informaciją galima rasti jo tinklalapyje, žemiau rasite nuorodą) M yra dar vienas žingsnis kompozitoriaus kelyje. Stebėtina, kad lyg ir siauroje muzikos srityje Gintas K sugeba atrasti naujus kelius, naujus garsovaizdžius, naujas idėjas.
Naujasis, net 70 minučių albumas sudarytas iš septyniolikos kūrinių, kurie yra nevienodo ilgio - pirmasis beveik aštuoniolikos minučių, kai kurie po penkias, septynias, aštuonias, nemažai kūrinių - vos po vieną, dvi, tris minutes. Albumas tartum sudarytas iš dviejų dalių - prieš septynerius metus įrašyto M (ketvirtasis kūrinys buvo pristatytas Ispanijoje) ir prieš dvejus - Mimicry.
Įdomu, kad albumą, išleistą paties Ginto K leidyklos gk rec., iliustravo (labai vykusiai) jo duktė Indrė Kraptavičiūtė. Digipakas išleistas estetiškai, viršelis rausvas, pats kompaktas - įdomaus mėlynos spalvos atspalvio, nugarėlė - juoda. Gal tai užuomina į mimikriją?
M(imikrija) yra be galo įdomus albumas (ypač užveža jo vienos kulminacijų - kūriniai Mimicry 2; taip pat ir septintoji Mimicry dalis): jo garsynas turtingas, posūkiai netikėti, garsiniai sprendimai originalūs. Iš esmės tai muzika tiems, kurie mėgsta medituoti klausydami panašius garsus. Smagu, kad masėms nepataikaujama, nors su savo kaip muzikanto patirtimi Gintas K galėtų groti ir populiaresnę muziką - pankroką, industrial, metalą, gotiką ir dar bala žino ką. Tačiau kompozitorius neišduoda savęs ir kuria tai, kas jam pačiam patinka. Pagarba ir aukščiausias balas.
Naudingos nuorodos:
gintask.puslapiai.lt
gintask.home.blog
gintask.bandcamp.com/album/m-gk-rec-2019
www.pakartot.lt/project/gintas-k
Eksperimentinę muziką (po ankstyvojo pankroko periodo) Gintas K kuria jau ketvirtį amžiaus, jis yra ir pirmosios Lietuvoje industrial electronic stiliaus grupės MODUS šerdis. Dabar Gintas K daug keliauja po pasaulį su savo muzika, instaliacijomis, kuria muziką filmams, bendradarbiauja su garso menininkais @c, Paulo Raposo, Kouhei Matsunaga, David Ellis ir daugybe kitų. Jo albumai išleisti įvairiose šalyse, daugybėje leidyklų: pvz., Crónica, Baskaru, Con-v, Copy for Your Records, Bôłt, Creative Sources, Sub Rosa ir kt. Dalyvauta tokiuose tarptautiniuose festivaliuose ir simpoziumuose kaip Transmediale.05, Transmediale.07, ISEA2015, ISSTA2016, IRCAM forum workshop 2017, xCoAx 2018, ICMC2018. Prieš devynerius metus Ispanijoje laimėtas prizas renginyje II International Sound-Art Contest Broadcasting, o šiemet jis tapo The USF New-Music Consortium (NMC 2019) International Call for Scores / electronic composition category, 2019 USA laureatu. Nuo 2011 metų Gintas K yra Lietuvos Kompozitorių Sąjungos narys.
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MONDAY, MARCH 11, 2019
Gintas K - M [Gk Rec. 002]
www.nitestylez.de/2019/03/gintas-k-m-gk-rec-002.html
Coming in straight from Lithuania is "M", the second album released by Gintas Kraptavicius a.k.a. Gintas K through his very own label Gk Rec., exclusively set up to be a channel to release his own musical output. Split into two main pieces, the 2012 composed "M" and the more recent, 2017 work "Mimicry" the nearly 70 minutes longplayer provides a total of seventeen tracks with "M" containing six, of which "4m" was previously released on a Sub Rosa compilation back in 2013, and "Mimicry" eleven of them. Opening with the title piece we experience Gintas K exploring a world of chaotic, hectic, buzzing and bleeping Digital Noize structures which bring us back to the early days of Max/MSP through its glitching, ever morphing and demanding, yet non-repetetive nature with the aforementioned "4m" being the most structured, calm and somewhat Electronica-oriented out of the six parts whereas "Mimicry" focuses on a more scraping, dry, electric and minimalist aproach and even adds occasional sparse and abstract percussive elements to the highly artificial sound structures which, therefore, could be referred to as a glimpse of what could be a Digital FreeJazz / Future Jazz sound of a far flung future even though cuts like "Mimicry 4" weigh in some Ambient references and widescreen panoramic elements at times and "Mimicry 8" tends to resemble a morphed, ever warped take on Clicks'n'Cuts especially throughout its opening sequence. Defo a special interest release, this.
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Gintas K – M (GK, Feb 18)
jckmd March 3, 2019
noisenotmusic.com/2019/03/03/review-gintas-k-m-gk-feb-18/
In the one-and-zero walled world of so-called “computer music” (undoubtedly a vague and even somewhat deprecating moniker), the turbulent chunks of synthetic hums, blips, and glitches are backed by a variety of paradigms. The most renowned artists in this field, such as Florian Hecker, who in his music “dramatizes space, time and self-perception in his sonic works by isolating specific auditory events in their singularity, thus stretching the boundaries of their materialization,” or Yasunao Tone, whose works are concerned with the sonic properties of transformed and converted media, might give the impression that this sort of music is a very academic or even notional pursuit. But ultimately the sound itself is what matters, and placing all of the credit on the theoretical back end is, in my opinion, fallacious and reductive. M, which collects two compositions by Lithuanian sound artist Gintas Kraptavičius—M (2012) and Mimicry (2017)—is a visceral opus that explores the staggering potentials of the artist’s palette of files, plugins, and effects. The album doesn’t concern itself with complex explanations—just the opposite, in fact; the only words on the packaging other than the credits and track titles is the famous Dalai Lama quote “Life is not easy.” Instead, like Network Glass, whose idiot/smiling I reviewed just the other day, Kraptavičius occupies the the much more universal dimension of isolated sound, focusing on the dizzying textural collages he crafts from the pulsing clouds of digital noise. Mimicry, which comprises the second part of the album, is very much a response to its precursor M; where the latter delves into dense, evolving clusters, the former takes on a volatility that feels much less composed, drawing power from its disarming unpredictability. “Mimicry4” presents the album’s closest flirtation with conventional beauty, rolling a loud, cathartic drone into the fray of frantic glitches, just one of the countless enrapturing sonic conversations with which Kraptavičius experiments. M is a decisive statement in raw data-driven music methodology, in itself an argument for a diversity of approaches.
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Gintas K – M
Posted: 26 February 2019 in Albums
Tags: Album Review, circuitry, Experimental, Extreme Electronica, Gintas K, Gintas Kraptavičius, M, Noise, Pwer Electronics 0
gk rec – 18th February 2019
auralaggravation.com/2019/02/26/gintas-k-m/
Gintas K’s catalogue continues to expand at a remarkable rate, and yet again, he demonstrates his deep interest in the production of theory-driven experimentation. However, the theory behind M isn’t necessarily as it may appear, as the text on his Bandcamp page for the release indicates:
Ralph Hopper: Is ‘Mimicry’ a re-imagining of the earlier ‘M’? It appears that ‘M’ is computer music and that ‘Mimicry’ is also computer music but in a live performance if I have that right and thus I’m thinking that your are ‘mimicking’ the earlier release. Maybe not?
Gintas K: well, when you said so it looks quite logical. Music inside is a bit similar. But in fact it is not. It is made using a different vst plugins. M is made from live played files, but later from them is made a collage. Mimicry is made just from real time made files, without any overdub.
In effect, M and Mimicry – released here together under the single monograph banner of M – are the product of a process played forward and then in reverse: first, the live performance collaged and generally fucked with, and second fucked-with sounds played as a live performance.
As a consequence of its modes of production, M is very much an album of two halves, a call-and response, an expostulation and reply, a working as a reworking. Comprising two album-length suites of compositions, ‘M’ and ‘Mimicry’, M was originally ‘played, composed & mastered by gintas k by computer in 2012. M (2012)’, while ‘Mimicry’ was ‘played live / real time & mastered by gintas k by computer’ some five years later in 2017.
‘M’ consists of six compositions, numbered in sequence, with the longest being the first, ‘1m’ which clocks in with just shy of 18 minutes of gurgling digital distortion, hissing static, whistles of feedback and fucked-up overloading, glitching gnarliness that sits comfortably in the bracket of extreme electronica. It’s not the frequencies which hurt: it’s the relentlessly stuttering, juddering, fracturing of sound, the jolting, the jarring the cutting out, the intermittency. By nature, the mind works to fill in gaps, and so the subconscious work required to smooth the tremolo effect of the stammering noise mess is mentally exhausting.
‘3m’ and ‘4m’ are substantial pieces, over seven minutes in duration, while the remaining three are snippety fragments of drone and hum, although they all congeal into a morass of brain-pulping pops and whizzes which crackle and creak and skitter and sizzle in erratic tides of discomfiting discord. And yet there’s something oddly compelling about this sonic sup that bubbles and froths and tugs at the nerve-endings without pity.
My synapses are fried and firing in all directions by the time I’m halfway through ‘3m’, a grinding, grating mess of clipped signals with all dials in the red which resembles ‘A Cunt Like You’ by Whitehouse, minus the ranting vocals. And then on ‘4m’… what is that? Some kind of subliminal vocal? Or is my mind just messing with me as it struggles to find orientation and points of familiarity in the stream of inhuman sound. It’s disorientating and difficult – and these are the positive attributes.
The ten ‘Mimicry’ pieces are perhaps re overtly playful – bleeps and whirs, crackles and pops, all cut back and forth so fast as to induce whiplash – not necessarily in the neck, but in the brain stem as the organ shifts into meltdown as it attempts to process the bewildering back-and-forth transmission of sonic data. Tones bounce and ripple at pace in confined spaces, and much of the sound seems to be in reverse, which adds to the dizzyingly fractured, disorientating sensation. There are dark moments, which hum and throb and drill and yammer and chew at the guts, but overall, the ‘Mimicry’ suite is less dense, less brutal, less painful.
The two sections would have worked as standalone albums, but to hear them side-by-side as contrasting and complimentary works is, ultimately, a more fulfilling experience, despite also being something of an endurance test. Its clear that as much as M challenges the listener, Gintas K is an artist intent on constantly challenging himself. And in an era when trigger warnings, entertainment and safe conformity have infiltrated and now dictate every corner of the arts, Gintas Kraptavičius’ unswerving commitment to pursuing his own interests and ends stands out more than ever.
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Vital Weekly, number 1172
Some weeks ago I had a discussion about good ol' laptop music and whether or not it is due for
a revival just yet. Maybe it is? Gintas K is a composer from Lithuania and he's been around doing
laptop music consistently for a long time now. His name, which is actually Gintas Kraptavicius,
first popped up in Vital Weekly 361 and ever since then with some regular intervals he does new
releases. According to his biography, he's been active since 1994 and these days he's doing
music for films, compositions and installations. He also started his label, GK Records, and these
are the inaugural releases. On 'M' we find two pieces. One is 'M', divided into six parts and
'Mimicry', which has eleven parts. The first is from 2012 and the latter from 2017; the latter is
played live, but that is not something that one would know from listening. There is not a lot of
difference between both works when it comes to how they sound. The differences are minor,
really. In the eleven parts of 'Mimicry' he uses a lot of small sounds, being tossed around inside
the granular synthesis programs he is using (and I have no idea if that is Max/Msp, Pure Data or
AudioMulch; or even something else), creating repeating yet chaotic little modules that are on a
constant shift in ever-changing parameters. Sometimes these parameters are quite big and the
changes extensive, and sometimes the changes are quite minor and close together. In 'M' it
seems to me that his granular synthesis is occasionally doing it more drone like sounds, closely
knit to form sustaining patterns, next to an even more chaotic approach, such as in the first, long
(-est) part. Differences are quite minor but occasionally crucial. (FdW)
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