Rueben (1) is the first NFT minted from the original master of the album Rueben, released on vinyl by Italian art label Die Schachtel in 2020, and part of the series Music On Three Tuning Systems, For Electric Guitar, Bass Clarinet And Cello Samples.

Album notes:

“Following EEEOOOSSS (Soave, 2019), ​Rueben makes use again of a microtonal vocabulary and a three-instrument sound palette. This time the samples are approached in a radically different way and are treated as minuscule sound atoms projected at extremely fast speed to form structures of ever changing density. In this new record, electric guitar, bass clarinet and cello harmoniously dialogue with each other, forming a multi-layered and contemplative sonic landscape. The acoustic response of the big reverberant church of St.Giusto in Volterra (Italy), where the sounds were played and recorded as they echoed in the space, gives the source material its peculiar depth adding harmonic complexity but also a sense of realness and liveness to the listening experience.

The work has been inspired by the observation of Italian Renaissance paintings during Mussida’s composition sessions in the summer of 2018 and recalls Pavel ​Florenskij​’s idea of ‘reverse time’, conceived by the Russian theologian when discussing his well-known theory of reverse perspective in relation to Mediaeval Russian icons. Reverse time refers to a particular temporal condition underlying dreams and the experience of looking at works of art: a non-linear conception of time presenting its own duration, as opposed to the empirical one unfolding in our everyday life.

Following a new established relationship between seeing and hearing, a similar temporal conception seems to emerge from the listening of the nine compositions forming ​Rueben​, an invitation to reflect through the language of sound on the time spent absorbing an image through one’s eyes.

The work could then be listened to as the translation into sound vibrations of the experience of seeing, a trace of suspended time, even as a tangible sensation or a memory of it, the result of a process of translation between the different media of perception.”

text by Bradford Bailey.

CREDITS

Composed and produced between June and July 2018

Acoustic response recorded in the S.Giusto Church, Volterra, Italy by Mirco Mencacci and Luca Ciarfella on August 12, 2018

Edited and mixed in Perth, Western Australia, between March and April 2020

LP release by Die Schachtel

Mastering, Giuseppe Ielasi

Artwork and Type Design, Bruno Stucchi

Original cover ink painting, Akihide Monna

Issued on vinyl in a one-time edition of 250 copies and pressed to 180g marble vinyl, housed in a pro-printed inner sleeve and jacket, contained in a silk-screen PVC sleeve.