Stael, Filax
Traces (10")
The audiovisual-collage project Section 10_Traces by Filax Staël was founded in 2013 from the artistic collaboration between Filax Staël (the pseudonym of artist/musician/graphic designer Bas Mantel) with old friend Okko Perekki. Their fascination with electronic sounds, field recording, musical and artistic experimentation and the desire for a creative and organic playground without preconceived and existing ideas set the creative process of the audiovisual project in motion with Traces as the first official output. The instrumental work could be seen as more of a departure as sound collages derived from found sounds, samples and studio recorded extracts, all compiled into new raw and layered compositions. Short tracks which are originally accompanied by graphic stop motion clips. The visual part is for this tangible release translated into a 52 paged book. Section_10; The book as a visual manual for the 24 tracks; wherein the flight map as a metaphore, directing the listener into a space where you are, is released to explore and experience the paths in a newly created (own) world of interconnected image and text fragments. How one stares at the physical and invisible environment, how do we process that? You will find no definitions or answers while reading and listening, but it gives an opportunity to experience it. Traces: 24 tracks over a span of about 26 minutes, as an indication of the fleeting and elusive nature of the sound fragments that are contained in Bas Mantels cut and paste/remix graphic punk style. Chaos and distropy on the one hand, well ordered and thoughtful on the other. Traces: Rhythmic synth pulses, sound recordings from instructional films from the 1950s, cut-up and re-pasted orchestral symphonies from the silent film era mixed with electronic noise and repetitive drum patterns, fragments of spoken words to twisted compositions from music boxes. Cut and pasted into new compositions, with the creative process of creating the sound fragments in a composition on the verge of disintegration in order to merge it into a unity. Intuitive puzzles with an ear for fragmenting, decaying and expanding as a whole.