"IQ+1’s third album, titled Conversaphone Plus, as the result of several séances recorded at the end of 2017. Every submersion in its depths is an unrepeatable experience. The organic sonic material is constantly contracting and expanding, adapting itself to the listener’s context, escaping beyond the horizon, creating mimicries, and enticing us to bubbling, popping, and jingling polyrhythms to then release its protective toxins. All six pieces boil on the narrow edge of chaotic decomposition and celestial order in which every sonic detail has its precisely determined position. Field recordings permeate the instruments on an equal footing, making it difficult to identify the sound, instrument, or player, so that each time the record is turned over, a new adventure begins. Federsel (B4, Handa Gote, Gurun Gurun) took care of the connective tissue between the pieces and the balanced post-production architecture.
Avoiding irritating instrumental exhibitionism, and egocentric deafness, Conversaphone Plus is nothing less than an uncompromising electro-acoustic testimony to the vitality of the Czech improvising scene. And it is nothing more than an attempt to connect sonic geology with astral listening.
Open the window a little – a messenger from the spacecraft known as IQ+1 is descending through the opening."
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George Bagdasarov / vintage turntable, FX, baritone sax
Veronika Hladká / violin
Jana Kneschke / violin
Jaroslav Tarnovski / synths, electronics, percussion, field recordings
Petr Vrba / clarinet, trumpet, electronics
Michal Zbořil / analog synths, electronics, Indian harmonium
Kateřina Bilejová / body weather
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Recorded by Federsel @ Divadlo Ponec, Prague (1-5) Školská 28, Prague (6)
Mixed & mastered by Federsel @ CSN, Prague
Artwork by Christian Orlock & design by Kella
Translated by Ian Mikyska
Thanks to Lukáš Jiřička, Divadlo Ponec, Jakub Juhás, Josef Jindrák
Special thanks to Federsel