Published by Alessandro Violante on June 20, 2023
In the last eight years, Under My Feet. collective, which we interviewed two years ago when it released its proper first tape release (not considering the Live On Tape series), has developed its multidisciplinary formula.
Ireen Amnes and DE:MA have developed a clearly perceivable artistic, visual, and sonic imagery by means of releases and multidisciplinary events. Having a clear and recognizable identity is the trademark needed to emerge above the large number of projects active in our digital epoch.
Since the beginning of the project, Under My Feet. has always organized events establishing a physical relationship with its audience and has always focused on experimentation in several music styles and media, in fact often in their events there are also art exhibitions. A connection could be traced with the experiences of old school industrial collectives and, in general, with those artistic collectives which, in the past century, developed a multidisciplinary vision, such as Fluxus. These artists have surely been influenced by the atmosphere of cities such as London and Berlin, where most of their events took place.
Under My Feet. is a good portrait of how our music has changed through these last years. Often artists, nowadays, refuse easy classifications and prefer to perceive themselves outside of rigid music schemes. This can be clearly perceived in their new tape release, entitled Farewell Notes, released on 26th May to celebrate their 8th anniversary.
Farewell Notes includes 15 songs. If we don’t consider the Live On Tape series, that’s their fourth tape. The previous tapes were respectively Unravelling by Ireen Amnes & Kamikaze Space Programme, Relief by Incendie and MA by Kashaiof.
With the series Live On Tape, they have recorded on tape some of the live recordings recorded during their events. Until now, they have released three tapes: that of Hiro Kone, that of Drew McDowall and that of Ireen Amnes.
Under My Feet. has worked on this release for more than one year and has done a huge work also with the packaging. Farewell Notes includes artists that, during these eight years, have collaborated with the collective in several ways.
For example, we find here Drew McDowall (here in collaboration with Ireen Amnes), Incendie and Kashaiof, together with some icons of our music such as Alessandro Adriani, Silent Servant and especially Orphx.
Orphx have always been considered pioneers of a certain kind of sonic experimentation which has influenced whole generations of artists and that keeps on doing that today. We’re glad to see that still today they’re considered as they should be. Their new releases demonstrate this.
The whole release focuses on experimentation and sonic manipulation, expressed in several different ways, clearly always with an obscure and underground touch. That’s why it’s very difficult, if not useless, trying to highlight some songs above others. Here there are no fillers or weak songs. It’s just a matter of taste. I would personally choose the songs by Ireen Amnes & Drew McDowall and those of Chloe Lula, Vera Spektor and Incendie, among others.
Hoping that this work won’t really be a farewell note, considering the absolute quality of this project, we wish them to keep on doing such excellent “artworks” for many years to come.
Label: Under My Feet.
Rating: 9