Original recordings 2016-2017 in Cambridge Uk
bonus materials
Bandcamp bonus materials include files to create a printable booklet
Mastered and produced by Matthew Florianz in 2023
released March 23, 2023
I’ve heard it called “a wall of sound” and “digging deep” with “brooding soundscapes (that) morph into an introspective landscape of drones and atmosphere with an engaging, evolving melodic ‘lead’”.
I’ll try not to spoil too much of the audio trip so you can form your own ideas and opinions while I will leave my associations in the track titles.
The @Ambientblog (www.ambientblog.net/blog/2023-04/florianz-remanence-maddalena/ ) mentions this as Peter touches upon the title and meanings which I haven’t disclosed.
Some thoughts: When I create it is often associative, lateral and from intuition. Track titles rarely exist beforehand and usually come into focus as the recording does. That is to say, there’s a path to creation: from generating a source to delivering a recording and titles are part to that.
That path is not documented and the associative nature of how a title comes to be is illusive at best. Vaporous connections, sometimes going back to a childhood experience or a current fascination.
The title itself is an observation: A betrayal (in the heat of a moment) can be followed by reflection and perhaps even a moment of regret. An honesty that feels brutal and beautiful.
Peter is also right to note that the album ends abruptly. The last minutes build up to something. The backside (of a) mirror is reflective but it doesn’t reflect. That’s something that fascinates me, it is like passages opening up in the wall behind the mirror. With all the opportunity to reflect and choose what to do next, perhaps even listen again?
I realise all to well that it doesn’t answer Peter’s questions. It is perhaps also a little cowardly to use provocative titles and not explain them in a satisfying way. I don’t write songs, I am not telling a story through structures of acts and logic. Titles and artwork guide but don’t narrate explicitly. Applying meaning wouldn’t be authentic to my (limited) level of skill and ability.
More clues…
When listening you might have an association or not, whichever it will be, it is from your experience and that is good.
Suffice to say, it is an encompassing journey that works well on headphones or really good stereo speakers with a bit of volume going into either.
Oh and back to that revising and tinkering, since the first upload of the album to bandcamp two weeks ago, I have made three more subsequent uploads: Slightly different takes in mastering and fine-tuning of the exact same material.
Does it make a difference?
I think it does but most likely that’s because once again I’m flying very close to my own creativity.
A release date brings wonderful focus as it building towards an inevitable moment, much like the ending of this recording does on “backside mirror”.
I hope that you will enjoy the trip - I’ve thoroughly enjoyed re-imagining this and the newfound technical experience will come to good use when revisiting Niemandsland from 2006.
I’m glad to see that Matthew Florianz has reinstated his former alias Liquid Morphine, since I always thought that was an apt description of his music. I have been following Florianz’ music ever since his earliest releases in 2001 (Grijsgebied and Molenstraat), when he was part of the early Dutch ambient music scene, creating his soundscapes with relatively simple means (as I remember, hist first albums were created only using a Korg synth and some effects).
A lot has changed since then: Florianz moved to the UK to become a professional (game) sound designer. But on more than 20 albums, he consistently focused on his immersive ambient soundscapes.
A Beautiful Brutal Betrayal originated in 2017, but Matthew thought it didn’t work for him then, since ‘it sounded too close to Wasteland Signals (2016)’. But time was patient and created enough distance to the material to start working on it, post-processing and editing, until it was found fit to release.
Like most of Matthew’s music, the soundscapes evoke wide sonic – yet unearthly – landscapes. The album title is a bit of a mystery to me, but as Florianz says: “I’ll try not to spoil too much of the audio trip so you can form your own ideas and opinions while I will leave my associations in the track titles”.
Most of the tracks are fairly short, with the exception of the title track (20’24”) and Under A Strand Of Hair (11’38”). But since all tracks are sequenced gapless, the album can best be experienced in one single session.
The closing track (Backside Mirror) ends abruptly, as if you suddenly awake from a pleasant dream. For a moment, I thought this was an error in the file, but when I asked Matthew he assured me that this was by design: “It’s abrupt but it builds to it somewhat subtly, as if playing backward. Sorry for “brutally betraying” the listener!”
The download also contains four bonus ‘sketches’, one of them unused in the final album.
the watchers
watch on you tube
a beautiful brutal betrayal
watch on you tube