francisco lópez & joe colley
knowing when to not know
(afro2009) 3" CD

A short and perplexing minidisc here, resulting from what may have been a fleeting encounter between the roaming Spaniard and California-based sound artist Joe Colley. In spite of its extreme abstraction, the work of Lopez never sounds like the product of a man who lives in his studio. Rather, there is always this "outdoor" quality to the music everything reflecting the glories of breathing, walking and living en plain air. This may be down to the source material he uses (often field recordings), but it also tends to reflect the semi mythical role that is starting to accrue around him: Lopez the voyager like a young Odysseus, flying from coast to coast across a restless ocean, as he ministers to his record label that has three international headquarters. Creating music out of his meetings with people, turning the journeys and the places into acoustic art. But importantly, he always takes the sounds back out into the world, so they become a part of it again. I like the story about this composition having its own "adventures" before it ends up in Lopez's traveller bag. Silence, emptiness, dead air.. the void of nothingness. Water. Then added layers of treated white noise. "Knowing when to not know" becomes impossibly intense, loud and impenetrable - acquiring an aura of menace. Everything fades away quickly leaving a lonely dissipated sound to blow away helplessly across an empty wasteland. We're stranded in another tract of silence, emptiness and dead air. Then, inexplicably a quiet muffled sound hovers in the air - we can barely hear them but there are instruments, guitars, drums and organ, a fourth rate funk band are playing through the wrong end of the telescope, dancing like tiny red ants on the anthill. The futility of man's endeavors starts to weigh upon your shoulders. The CD ends abruptly. Finis. The brevity of this composition has not prevented Lopez from realizing yet another powerful statement.
- Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector