Ferreyra, Beatriz: A Distracted God LP

Continuing a crucial documentation of Argentinian electroacoustic deity Beatriz Ferreyra life's work, Lawrence English's Room 40 assembles a trio of previously unheard compositions for tape and computer that brilliantly highlight her pioneering practice. Essential, deep listening FFO François Bayle, Roland Kayn, Valerio Tricoli, Daphne Oram. Following the jaw-droppingly good 'Echos+', 'Canto+' and 'UFO Forest+’ sets, ‘A Distracted God’ features 1987's computer-based masterpiece 'Souffle d'un petit Dieu distrait', 1976's violin and tape experiment 'Tierra Quebrada' and the shorter 'Sourires d’Automne' from 2006. And honestly, that opening cut is worth the cost of admission alone, deploying swarms of glassy textures angled in a way that makes the piece sing.  What begins as a lattice of tiny, almost microscopic sound soon snowballs into Kayn-style cybernetic psychedelia bestriding extreme noise and electroacoustic music without breaking a sweat. The music Ferreyra makes is just remarkable, moulded masterfully to extend the physical limits of the gear available to her at the time, never constrained by technology. Similarly, the lengthy concrète piece 'Tierra Quebrada', commissioned by the French state before Ferreyra had even begun experimenting with computers in earnest, feels prescient thanks to her unique processes. There were similar composers latched to the GRM at the time (Ferreyra herself was inducted into the group back in 1963) but she tears into the sound in a way that defies the era in which it was made - chewing up the pitch and tone until they're almost completely unrecognisable. All that's left is the dynamic, and Ferreyra as ever makes it her own, creating pure theatre from sweeps, crashes and long, eerie silences. The last piece 'Sourires d’Automne', from 2006, demonstrates that Ferreyra never really stopped pushing the envelope - it sounds just as vigorous as those early pieces, cramming more ideas into four minutes than most contemporary experimental practitioners manage in an entire record. Ferreyra is almost 90 years old at this point and she continues to perform and create - a remarkable feat, long may she continue.