Vienna has a storied history as a ground zero for new music. Radian, who call Vienna home, embodies the city’s spirit of innovation. Martin Brandlmayr (drums, electronics), Martin Siewert (guitar, electronics) and John Norman (bass) are stalwarts of the European contemporary music community. Distorted Rooms presents a dazzling new elevation of Radian’s employment and manipulation of microtones with a new emphasis on abstracted guitar motifs, often employing a more loop-based or electronic approach to the guitar’s sonics. Radian’s visionary approach to composition speaks to a lifetime of working in forward-thinking music. The trio expertly hone in on sounds often removed from the sheen of the recording process and mine them for unique, rich textural sound palettes which they then meticulously arrange. Distorted Rooms creative process began with multi-stage recording of often the smallest sounds, from pick-scrapes to an amplifier’s latent hiss. These slivers of sound are then restructured and processed through a variety of techniques that transform them drastically. Radian have always been interested in sounds that might be considered byproducts and maximizing their creative and aural potential. More minor gestures like switching a pedal on and off or toggling the guitar’s pickup are mic’d and spun into textures that crackle and froth to fascinating effect.
“We often use what we call microscopic micing,” the band notes, “having very quiet sounds that we mic up and amplify to be very loud, thus playing with the usual dynamics and expectations of listeners creatively. We also use super-loud sounds and put them in the mix very softly.” Radian’s angular, expansive music delights in tension and contradiction, sound and silence, improvisation and composition.
The trio employs a singular and wholly unique sense of microtonality. While their creation process is complex, the resulting music is emotionally affecting, creating an aura of suspense and at times unease. Brandlmayr, Siewert, and Norman share an unconventional, wildly imaginative approach to sound.
