[at085] Durán Vázquez - Le Espectacle de la Société du l'Espectacle

Date of release: 07.06.2018
Format: FILE - MP3 / WAV 
Length: 50:25 min
Artwork: Audiotalaia 



Le Espectacle de la Société du l'Espectacle is the latest work by galician artist Durán Vázquez. This album has been divided in three parts that are presented as a continuous reflection on soundscapes of our contemporary life recorded as fragments of common places in our western capitalist contemporary society. Leisure, sports, cultural manifestations, protests and daily life are entangled together to shape a tapestry of how Durán Vázquez perceives his immediate environment. In his own words Vázquez states that those recordings and the fusion between whats fictional and whats truthful aims to portray the implicit political aspects of the daily life soundscape, regardless of what society defines itself.

The album is furrowed by electronic sonic structures that detaches the listener from the inmersive experience of the soundscape. It seems that those instances are a reflection of a certain feeling of rejection from the artist himself, a way to listen to the environment with perspective, and distance; or just as if drowned by soundscapes, we need to swim up to catch a breath from all the complexities and noises from the mundane soundscape around us.

Who knows.


01. Shin BLU 43 (Primera Parte)
02. Shin BLU 43 (Segunda Parte)
03. Shin BLU 43 (Tercera Parte)


Produced, mixed and composed by Durán Vázquez in 2017-18.
This work is protected under a Creative Commons License 4.0 Share-Alike.



Marxist theorist Guy Debord warned about the seductions of the information age long before the internet existed: “Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit.” Durán Vázquez adopts Debord’s food shredder as a structural metaphor on Le Espectacle de la Société du l’Espectacle. With an eye (and ear) on public sites haunted by specters of consumerism, the Galician sound artist mulches field recordings into vexing soundscapes. The first track opens with water lapping a lakeshore; but the tranquility is soon bruised by motorboats. An electronic drone provides a quiet foil for the furious recreation. Transporting us from an idle day on the lake to a street rally, shouts for help unsettle beside gunshots on the second track. Bleating car horns sound like a flock of strangled geese; elsewhere, a studio laugh track cackles eerily. The final track seethes with gurgles and gratings. Passing airplanes drown out a speech, the announcer coaxing chants from the crowd. (In an era of tribal politics, authority captivates when amplified on stage.) Life may be a festival filled with ghosts of our desires; but if the party never stops, how will we know what we celebrate versus what we mourn? Never has a garbage disposal sounded so broken.

Todd B. Gruel . A Closer Listen.