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Long after the first two releases issued by Ground Fault and Edition
Ellipsis, and/OAR & Alluvial Recordings are pleased to finally be
able to present the final release in a trilogy covering the sonic
expeditions of the French location-specific electroacoustic trio Afflux
(Eric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet & Eric Cordier).

This release summarises what was initially a 6 hour performance /
installation / radio broadcast that occurred at the TNT cultural centre
in Bordeaux, France. The TNT centre is situated inside a former
shoe manufacturing building. With several hundred meters of
cables, the exterior and interior of the building were recorded using
several different condenser and contact microphones, modified and
mixed in real time on a 32 channel mixing desk. Simultaneously, the
live mix was played into the concert hall / space using 8 channels
for 8 loudspeakers. While the improvisers were on the upper level,
the audience was listening and walking around on the lower level.

The final mix for the CD was edited by Eric La Casa.

* CORRECTION: The website address for Alluvial Recordings is
incorrect on the insert. The correct address is:
www.alluvialrecordings.com

VITAL WEEKLY number 521 week 15
(MARCH 2006)
Your ear is an excellent microphone. Imagine to be in a crowded
place, close your eyes and listen. You will pay attention to detailed
sounds around you, simply because your mind allows you to ignore
the surrounding sounds, those you don't want to hear. Afflux does
something like that, except that they use real microphones and
contact microphones in a location. TNT cultural centre in Bordeaux
is apparently a big building with a bar/restaurant, offices, concert
space and a top floor. Afflux attached many contact microphones to
all of these places and they were connected to a 32 channel mixer
and the resultant mix was played over eight speakers in the concert
half. The whole concert lasted six hours. Afflux is the collaboration of
Eric Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La Casa, all three
composers in their own right. From the six hours of recordings, Eric
La Casa edited this fifty one minute CD, with just one piece.

We hear sounds that we recognize, like people talking, the elevator,
maybe the coffee machine, but they all appear to be far away, or
embedded in a strange environment - maybe like we would hear
this when we would inside such a big environment ourselves, but
now the ears don't select - the selection has been made for us, by
La Casa. Our ears are now focused on this CD, and not the rain
outside, or our own coffee machine. It makes this into quite a
strange listening affair, since we recognize the daily sounds that we
would always recognize but also all these other sounds. It makes
this however not an uneasy affair, but rather a fascinating one: what
are these sounds, and where are they going to? It's a highly
captivating soundscape that is captured here. Not so much with a
'story' or a 'composition', but ambient music in the true meaning of
the word: music made of the ambience. Gorgeous music.
(Frans de Waard)

PARIS TRANSATLANTIC (JULY 2006)
The ability of a CD to satisfactorily recreate the experience of
walking through
a sound installation is limited, to say the least, yet labels like Dale
Lloyd's and/OAR and Alluvial keep going against the odds,
releasing important documents that more often than not approach
"masterpiece" status in this particular area. In this instance, Eric
Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La Casa recorded a live
performance at La Manufacture des Chaussures in Bordeaux, six
hours of sounds specifically conceived to be used in the inner
zones of Bordeaux's TNT Cultural Centre. The artists decided to mix
prerecorded sounds together with those of the urban surroundings,
extending cables throughout the Centre, installing condenser and
contact microphones and channelling everything to a mixing desk
manned in real time by La Casa, who modified and filtered the
incoming results. The mix was played in TNT's concert hall by eight
speakers, the three men working on the first floor of the building
while people walked and listened on the ground floor. But none of
this theoretical babble will prepare you for the uncertain weather of
Bordeaux TNT,
a 51-minute piece where the manipulation is almost undetectable,
all sounds maintaining their basic attributes even in the most
unpredictable moments. Screaming children and barking dogs are
engulfed in a nocturnal dimness amalgamating the noise of traffic
and the scary silence of a blind alley. The pulsing complex structure
of vibrations (Guionnet is credited with "long string recording
devices") had me thinking of Paul Panhuysen flying a miniature
plane sitting on a café terrasse. Every once in a while a passing car
roars louder, yet everything is organically linked in an obscure but
perfectly functional mechanism of sonic circulation, a perfect
example of how such projects should be realized. Above all, Afflux
succeed in reminding us of the beauty of long-distance
urban/industrial murmur, inviting us to leave our mental windows
open, to change the air a little bit. (Massimo Ricci)

TOUCHING EXTREMES (May 2006)
The TNT cultural centre in Bordeaux was filled by "several hundred
meters of cables" by Eric Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Eric La
Casa, who proceeded to record the internal and external sonorities
of the area placing a large amount of condenser and contact
microphones, whose captured sounds were altered/processed and
sent to a 32-channel mixer, then played in the building through eight
loudspeakers. The perfect balance reached by Afflux is
demonstrated by the beautiful results we achieved during
consecutive listening sessions: at a good level with windows
closed, the overall mix deploys a rapture of motors, trains and urban
clattering juxtaposing the sublime of a peripheral zone and the
danger of walking alone at night in the street. But if you let these
recollections fuse with the sounds of life coming from outside -
which in my case included a cuckoo, a distant jet and the faraway
voices of a few Sunday country walkers among the rest - you could
even feel entitled to some sort of monastic pondering alleviating this
era's insecurity and mental tiredness. (Massimo Ricci)

GAZ-ETA (May 2006)
Bordeaux TNT" stanowi zamknięcie trylogii przedstawiającej
dźwiękowe pejzaże, które trio Eric La Casa, Jean-Luc Guionnet i Eric
Cordier nagrywało w różnych rejonach Francji. Oczywiście pejzaże to
szczególne, stanowiące nie tyle dosłowny zapis, lecz próbę
schwytania swoistego ducha miejsca, często nieuchwytnego
nieuzbrojonym uchem, bowiem Affluxowcy nie ograniczają się tylko
do rejestracji dźwięków, lecz często je przetwarzają, bądź miksują z
innymi. Na omawianej płycie przedstawiają fragment słuchowiska, z
którym przez sześć godzin mierzyli się goście centrum kulturalnego
TNT w Bordeaux. La Casa, Guionnet i Cordier rozmieścili mikrofony
wewnątrz (przede wszystkim w sali restauracyjnej) oraz na zewnątrz
budynku i improwizowali, przepuszczając modyfikowany dźwięk
przez 32-kanałowy stół mikserski do ośmiu głośników znajdujących
się piętro niżej. Centrum, które mieści się w budynku dawnej fabryki
butów, ulokowane w pobliżu torów kolejowych i szosy wydaje się być
odpowiednim miejscem na tego typu przedsięwzięcie nie tylko ze
względu na to, że dostarcza materiał dźwiękowy, ale i dzięki temu, że
pozwala mu się swobodnie rozchodzić.

Jak już wspomniałem cały koncert - a może lepsza byłaby nazwa
instalacja, bowiem muzycy nie byli obecni w sali koncertowej ? -
trwał sześć godzin, zaś "Bordeaux TNT" tylko pięćdziesiąt jeden
minut, i m.in. dlatego (kolejnym powodem była konieczność zgrania
wszystkiego na dwie ścieżki) materiał przeznaczony na płytę został
na nowo zmiksowany przez Erica la Casa. Nie będąc świadkiem
koncertu, trudno mi ocenić, czy aby przy tej okazji materia nie została
specjalnie "zagęszczona" po to, by akcja rozgrywała się szybciej. A
dzieje się tu wiele i dzieje się bardzo ciekawie. Odgłosy zewnętrza
(ptaki, wiatr, pociągi, samochody, niezidentyfikowane trzaski itp.) i
wnętrza (szmery, brzęczenie, głosy, itd.) splecione ciasno w mocny
dźwiękowy warkocz, przenikają się, dopełniają, przekomarzają,
przekrzykują - zwykłe dźwięki poddane manipulacjom ukazują swoją
drugą twarz, niesłyszaną wcześniej, często zachwycając i drażniąc
jednocześnie. Absorbujący uwagę, pełen smakowitych detali i
niezwykłych barw elektroakustyczny kolaż, soundscape który
podsumowuje tytuł metamkinowskiej serii Cinema pour l'oirrelle.
(Tadeusz Kosiek)

WIRE MAGAZINE (JUNE 2006)
Afflux is an ongoing collaboration of French electroacoustic sound
technicians who have habitually tackled large scale installations and
convoluted recording situations. For Bordeaux TNT, the trio of Eric
Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet, and Eric la Casa set up dozens of
contact microphones and long-stringed devices throughout the
5000 square metres of a factory in Bordeaux which is now home to
the TNT cultural centre. During a six hour performance, they
amplified and manipulated the resonant hums, drones, and
creakings inherent in the massive building. The trio extract
the most engaging sounds from the building itself, with their
gestural pings, strokes, and metallic clamour sounding futile in
comparison. Nonetheless, this is a sophisticated piece of sound
art. (Jim Haynes)

BLOW UP (MAY 2006)
La Casa (microfoni a contatto) con Eric Cordier (processing) e
Jean-Luc Guionnet (registrazione e mixing) sono gli Afflux, qui
registrati nel materiale sonoro relativo a una installazione effettuata
al TNT di Bordeaux nel 2000. La musica e piu vivace articolata
rispetto aI 3", pur dipendendo sostanzialmente da concretismi :
glitch elettrici in comunella con scie luminose di feedback
tenerissimo e rumore digitale che si modula e adatta con notevole
efficacia. (Stefano I. Bianchi)

SMALLFISH (JULY 2006)
Afflux is a collaborative project by Eric Cordier, Jean-Luc Guionnet
and Eric La Casa and features a series of excerpts taken from a
6-hour installation / live performance at the TNT cultural centre in
Bordeaux. The artists created a wonderful soundscape by recording
the inner space of the building itself, then manipulating and
processing it in real-time. Dense, striking and full of interesting,
engaging moments it captures the sense of a busy space with style
and panache. There's a beauty here that becomes more and more
apparent with each listen. Superb.