Do Outro Lado Do Espelho (Lylac Ambient Reworks) | tl

A dreamy, ethereal, cinematic reworking of :papercutz's music by the hand of some very talented artists. Do outro lado do espelho (transl: From the other side of the looking glass) means that this is their vision of the album's songs in their particular artistic world...an ambitious project indeed.

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THE ARK

Often, you can judge an album by how it appears; the cover, the graphics, the colours used. When I saw this it looked fragile, gentle and ethereal. For a band to come from Portugal and offer something so refreshingly textured is a delight. Bruno Pereira Pinto is a name I’d never come across, but I certainly know of him now thanks to Sheffield’s Audiobulb record label. The term ambient has become a somewhat dirty genre, swamped by talentless tunesmiths trying to make a fast buck. :papercutz have bucked the expectation with a simply dreamlike album that takes you away with it. There are obvious comparisons to be made with such bands as The Cocteau Twins but that does them a disservice. Ther is a hidden darkness tugging away at the gentle rhythms that gentle soothe you when listening to this album. From the opening track, Ecantemento, the sounds that sweep away at you simply take you to somewhere much cleaner, somewhere you want to be. The album works so well in the way the tracks are layered that you can feel something building consistently behind it. It has a narrative, a course that it follows and pulls you with it. It allows you to create a vision to go with the soundscape the music creates.

Ignore what you’re supposed to see, or what you’re force fed by heavy rotation playlists to imagine. Just slip
away to when all you had was the music and your imagination and let yourself go.

Remixing an entire album is a dangerous game; it can fall short of the original material and create something that
bears little resemblance to the original creation. Yet throughout Do Outro Lado Do Espelho, the feeling of respect
for Bruno shines through every remix on this album. By using Melissa Veras’ vocals as an anchor point on each
track, the sounds sweep around her like a gentle storm.

From knowing nothing about this band or its driving force Pinto, I’m converted instantly by what I’ve heard in this
stunning collection and want to hear more from :papercutz. A perfect album for long summer days, you’ll have to
go a long way to hear a better collection of songs from Europe this year. A simply lovely album, I urge you to
ignore the ambient tag and allow yourself to immerse yourself in this sumptuous collection.

RECORD COLLECTOR

Based in Portugual, Papercutz’s gravitational centre is Bruno Miguel, who’s erected a musical flag that flutters in
a clear ambient sky with a hint of cirrus jazz, trip-hop clouds and electro/acoustic lightning. Stitched together
with the same precision as Four Tet’s work, his debut album Lylac spun candy into the ears and was a critical
success. Miguel has now allowed a number of fellow stuntmen to unpick his stitching and add their own
needlework in remixing and retooling tracks from this album. All We Have Left, retooled by Emanuele Errante,
shuffles along like gamelin trills, while Gift Of Self (Simon Scott) is a delightful ambient ebb beneath the original
vocals, sounding like The Cranberries’ lead singer on vacation. Is Fading (Feu Follet) suggests the minimalist
river force of Phillip Glass arching across flat ground towards the sea, while Taylor Dupree’s Do Outro Lado Do
Espelho ends gloriously with vocals repeating into infinity. Encanamendo is a new Miguel track – albeit recycling
an original LP vocal – with a piano clarity which recalls Conny Plank’s production, while Ultraviolets gets an
intergalactic morse-stroke from Croydon via Rameses III. Essential counterpoint to the original album.

BOOMKAT

Lovely set of shoegazy ambient remixes of Portuguese composer :Papercutz from Helios, Simon Scott, Taylor
Deupree, Rameses III, Autistici, Jasper TX and more. The source material comes from his 'Lylac' album, a set of
cinematically lush orchestrations neatly blending acoustic and electronic instrumentation with popwise vocals,
ripe for the revision session. Undoubtedly, the highlight of the show is Taylor Deupree's magical reweave of
the title track, taking the focus away from the vocal to foreground the strings amidst beautifully dispersed
electro-acoustic detailing. Chris Bissonette also impresses with the icily distant percussion of his 'Caught In A
Halo' rework almost touching on Thomas Köner territory, and the majestic Jasper TX mix of 'Broken Treasure' is
greatly worthy of your time.

HEADPHONE COMMUTE

Last year we reviewed Bruno Miguel’s debut as :papercutz – Lylac (Apegenine, 2008). Miguel followed up the
album with Ultravioleta Rmx’s on the same label. Two years later, Lylac still resonates… Do Outro Lado Do
Espelho (translated as “from the other side of the looking glass”) is a compilation of reworks from yet another
amazing selection of artists. After releasing Lylac, Miguel was inspired to allow other artists to extract the
foundation beneath the songs and erect upon it a structure of their own interpretations. This is an ambitious
project with contributions from Helios, Emanuele Errante, Simon Scott, Taylor Deupree, Rameses III, Autistici,
Christopher Bissonnette and Jasper TX. Whew! Are you impressed? Here are twelve amazing tracks by
masters of ambient and modern classical composition! The Helios remix alone is worth your attention.
Taylor Deupree incorporates the vocals into a delicious composition of guitar chords and harmonic song
progression , while Jasper TX scratches on the surface of peripheral hearing
with his slow paced filtered piano chords and swelling cinematic atmospheres.

DROWNED IN SOUND

On a significantly lower profile but no less fascinating tip, Portuguese ambient pop musician :Papercutz has
commissioned a remix album of his work which reads like a who’s who of contemporary drone. Remix records
are often, by their very nature, frustratingly inconsistent, but thankfully Do Outro Lado Do Espello represents a
notably coherent and engaging exception. More specifically, Jasper TX’s contribution provides a masterclass in
submerged, yet emotionally arresting, washes of sound, while the quite heart-breaking Simon Scott offering is
amongst the finest pieces of music I’ve heard this year; don’t let this one pass below your radar.

THE MILK FACTORY

Originally the project of Porto-based musician Bruno Miguel Pereira Pinto, :Papercutz soon expanded to incorporate
vocalist Melissa Veras, with other musicians joining the pair for live performances. Released two years ago on
Canadian imprint Apegenine, Lylac, the band’s first album, bridged the gap between stark atmospheric electronica
and elegant contemporary pop music to create a superb hybrid, served by Pinto’s delicate blend of acoustic
instrumentation, electronic textures and beats on one side, and by Veras’s softly ethereal vocal tones,
occasionally reminiscent of Anneli Drecker, on the other. The album was followed by a single, Ultravioleta, which
featured remixes by The Sight Below, Neotropic, Spandex and Signer. This is partly what encouraged Pinto to let
other musicians give their own vision of his work. The resulting collection of remixes, published on Audiobulb,
features reworks by Helios, Simon Scott, Taylor Deupree, He Can Jog, Autistici, Astroboy, Chris Bissonnette,
Jasper TX, Rameses III, Emanuele Errante and Feu Follet.

Expectedly, the tone is somewhat subdued and, occasionally on the verge of reflective here, but, despite involving
artists from very different horizons, this album is extremely consistent all the way through, and actually sits
comfortably next to Lylac by complementing it rather well. Indeed, while each artist interprets a given song in their
own way, bringing their own universe into that of :Papercutz, they all do so very respectfully of the original work
by retaining much of the layered aspect of songs. These are however for the most part radical reworkings, which
see soundscapes developed into lush new ambient forms or retract into spacious drones, while the voice is in turn
wrapped in textures and treated as just another sound source, or isolated as primary organic element to increase
its impact.

On The Gift Of Self, Simon Scott focuses on expanding just a fraction of guitar tones into a rising drone around
which circles distant voices, while Taylor Deupree turns the somewhat stripped down Do Outro Lado Do Espelho
into a rich and vivid soundtrack above which Veras’s voice appears as in suspension. He Can Jog brings things
back down to earth for a moment with a stabbing distorted electric guitar on A Way To Emerge, but soon the tone
softens again and allows for another dreamy space to develop, away from the marimbas and percussions of the
original. Perhaps the most striking remixes are found toward the end, first with the breathy Astroboy version of
Lost Boys, which retains the rhythmic pattern of the Lylac version, but dips it into a much hazier sound setting,
while he pushes the voice slightly deeper in the mix, then with Jasper TX’s magical take on Broken Treasure.
Building on a single looped chord progression by slowly adding delicate piano lines, then burying them under
layers of sound, Dag Rosenqvist delivers here a truly magnificent version.

Remix projects can be difficult to carry through without impacting in one way or another on the original versions,
especially when an entire album is concerned. In the case of :Papercutz, the great respect with which each of
the contributors treat Bruno Miguel Pereira Pinto’s delicate arrangements and Melissa Veras’s soft interpretation
ensures that both original and remixed versions can exist side by side, complement each other which retaining
their own identity.

TEXTURA

It's wonderful to see Bruno Miguel's :papercutz project receive newfound exposure through the Audiobulb imprint
and to see his electro-acoustic pop re-interpreted by an impressive cast of kindred spirits, with Helios, Simon
Scott, Taylor Deupree, Jasper TX, and Ramses III a sampling of the high-calibre names involved. A set of ambient-
styled reworks of the last :papercutz album Lylac, the hour-long collection's title, Do outro lado do espelho,
translates from the Portugese as “on the other side of the looking glass.” Enough remains of Lylac's sound for the
listener new to Miguel's world to derive some sense of his :papercutz style. The vocals, marimbas, pianos, and
electronics heard in his originals aren't removed but instead added to and re-shaped by the contributors—each
one looking upon an original from the other side of his/her own respective glass.

Though the album title reads Lylac Ambient Reworks, the dozen tracks hardly hew to a single style. The album
alternates between electronic songs (restrained and extroverted) and soundscapes in such a way that a funky,
uptempo treatment (The Astroboy's “Lost Boys”) is followed by an instrumental soundscape (Jasper TX's stately
“Broken treasure”) of wholly different character. Rameses III's “Inside The Nimbus Machine” vocal-less makeover
of “Ultravioleta” takes a five-minute plunge into ambient soundscaping haze, and Chris Bissonnette's “Caught in a
Halo” becomes an entrancing, 21st-century gamelan setting. Simon Scott's remix of “The Gift of Self” is
unfortunately too short at two minutes to register as one of the album's more significant pieces, even if it is a
succinct example of Scott's ambient dreamscaping style. By contrast, Autistici introduces a funkier dimension to
the album in his “A Secret Search” version, while The Astroboy's “Lost Boys” even nods in a hip-hop direction in
the bumping groove that powers the vocal-based song. Beats, vocals, and stuttering voice fragments turn He Can
Jog's treatment of “A Way to Emerge” into a flickering and hyperactive three-minute ride.

Keith Kenniff has a habit of elevating any project he contributes to and it's no different in this case, as his
rapturous Helios version of “Lylac” offers one of the album's loveliest moments. The track embeds delicate female
vocals within an elegant, soul-stirring arrangement that exudes an epic shoegaze-like character during its slow
rise. Taylor Deupree's version of “Do outro lado do espelho” is powerfully affecting too. The 12k head gives the
original's emotive vocal dimension ample room to flower, and fashions an intoxicating piano- and harp-oriented
arrangment as a support for it. Miguel's own new :papercutz song “Encantamento” introduces the album so
splendidly, it makes one long for more original :papercutz material. Though he enriches the track with electronics
and serenading vocal effects (and tips his hat to Steve Reich in the mallet percussion patterns that patter
alongside the piece's lyrical melodies), piano is the central voice. At day's end, the project as a whole makes one
long to hear more of Miguel's unaltered :papercutz material.

CYCLIC DEFROST

As is often the case with significant albums in the general electronica field, a follow up album of remixes, re-
interpretations or reworks follows. Do Outro Lado Do Espelho revisits Lylac though the of the ear of Bruno
Miguel whose selection of collaborators allows for this project to surpass the originals so soundly. Translated
from the Portuguese as ‘on the other side of the looking glass’, which is an apt enough metaphor for a translation
act, as if the remixers were actively manipulating the sound reflection of the original in different guise, presenting
new faces and aspects to the ear of the beholder.

A remarkable group of artists they are Helios with a beatific version of Lylac, long dreamlike chords and textured
ambient electronic undertones with a reverent and ponderous placement of the vocals high on attenuated effect.
Taylor Dupree with the title track, displaying keen mixing skills, highlighting the original and heightening the
elements while maintaining a faux elegant simplicity. Jasper TX’s version of Broken Treasure provides a long
magisterial entrance to the track, before the fusion of elements heightens and forms a mist like ambience. Feu
Follet similarly holds …Is Fading with the presence once due to the organ as it holds and slightly alters chord and
tone with subtle effects gleaming through and eventually releasing at the end. Rameses III’s Inside the Nimbus
Machine version of Ultravioleta displays a high degree of abstraction from the original, opening with the repeated
record-esque scratched sample before wandering into streached out experimentation of the elements in a
discrete sonic plane of tonal ambience.

:Papercutz’s movement to Audiobulb allows for a wider audience for this Portuguese artist work as indeed the
remix project solidifies as it makes connections within the contemporary experimental ambient network. The
album heightens the dreamlike nature of the originals, purposefully constructed iconic mythos, deliberately
utilising contemporary techniques and technology, along with the musical artists adept at their manipulation. It
is a reflected abstraction that will hold your ear transfixed long after the mirror makers acts.

BARCODE

Portuguese electro-acoustic pop group ‘:papercutz’ allow their debut album (Lylac) to be remixed by a host
of ambient/microsound artists.

Having not heard the original, I can only take these reinterpretations at face value; however, the key word
appears to be ‘fluency’. As a collection of tracks, Do Outro Lado Do Espelho fits together seamlessly to provide
a raft of dreamy ambient music led by drifting piano, some textural programming and bouts of wandering female
vocals.

Few tracks stand head and shoulders above the rest, but the opening piano-piece Encantamento is ultra-
soothing, leading into the reflective muse of Helios’s remix of Lylac.

Most of the tracks on Do Outro Lado Do Espelho struggle to carry strong melodies and lack any discernable
rhythms, so the record often drifts into almost entirely ambient landscapes that only occasionally toy with
:papercutz supposed pop aesthetic.

Better heard in its entirety, Do Outro Lado Do Espelho is perfect for hazy/lazy summer afternoons, where
intentions stretch little further than falling into a state of atmospherically induced comatose. If I have a criticism
of the record, it lies in its own lack of variety – unusual in a remix album.

THE RECORD STACK

I have recently been receving a lot of music from artists who definitely deserve more attention. This next band
bring some different sounds to the table. Bruno Miguel, the leader of this well developed group, and I have
been having an email exchange throughout the past week, and I have finally gathered my thoughts to review
them.

This once single act project carried out by Bruno Miguel has become one of the few groups to come out of
Portugal into the international independent electronic music scene. :Papercutz pursue the perfect balance
between acoustic and electronic sounds. What makes up this wonderfully crafted group are their live
instrumentals, along with their spacious electronic sounds filled with lush ambience and savoring dream like
melodies, while the delightfully soft vocals are wrapped in many layers to form a primary organic ingredient
specific to this bands sound. :Papercutz will swell you into another world making you yearn for more of those
precious melodies and calm soaring vocals.

SAVARAN MUSIC

Back in April this year I read a review http://www.tokafi.com/newsitems/cd-feature-papercutz-lylac/ about the
new Portuguese electronic project known as Papercutz led by Bruno Miguel and their debut album Lylac, released
by Apegenine Recordings (Canada) in 2008 http://store.papercutzed.com/ . The sound was exciting and new and
blended electronic, electro-acoustic and field recorded sounds with English and Portuguese vocals in a heady mix
of pop and avant-garde/electro-classical genres. It seemed cutting edge to me and the full album did not disappoint
when it arrived – it has been much played over the rest of this year.

I was therefore delighted when I found out that one of my favourite experimental electronic music labels in the UK,
Audiobulb http://www.audiobulb.com/ ,was bringing out a remix album of Lylac featuring an impressive array of
the most respected artists in the world of electronic, drone and electro-acoustic ambient music.

Released in April 2010 Do Outro Lado Do Espelho (Lylac Ambient Reworks) includes 12 remix tracks by Helios,
Simon Scott, Taylor Deupree, Rameses III, Autistici, Jasper TX, Emanuele Errante, He Can Jog, Chris Bissonnette,
The Astroboy and Feu Follet. All of the tracks show a great respect for the original material and tend to develop
around the haunting/smoky vocal phrases of Melissa Veras’s voice or subtle melodic phrases from the acoustic
instrumentation of the source material. The remix album complements the original Lylac to such an extent that you
would have thought it was from a double disc original release.

Having said that the ambient reworks definitely reflect the artistic process of their originators and the Lylac tracks
have been throughly disected, morphed, stretched or compressed by master surgeons then re-assembled into an
album playing out in some sort of dreamy parallel universe where all the same elements exist, but fused into utterly
different forms.

My favourite interpretations include the magical Helios remix which is now accompanied by a fantastic CGI based
video directed by Daihei Shibata http://vimeo.com/11796577 and the sublime Taylor Deupree remix of Do outro lado
do Espelho which interweaves fragmented guitar lines with evocative vocal phrases and TD’s unique processed
field recordings. The latter track also has its own video directed by Javi Devitt http://vimeo.com/13345156

Bruno Miguel is now recording his second album under the Papercutz moniker which will place the electronics
more in the background, giving way to the vocals and acoustic instruments. He has also hinted that a further
ambient remix may arise from the next project. I look forward to seeing what this innovative artist and his musical
collaborators come up with next and I can thoroughly recommend both the remix album and the original Lylac
album.

AMBIENT BLOG

Well here's for something completely different!

Usually, ambientblog is not the platform to promote portuguese electronic pop music - however adventurous it
may be. But after releasing Lylac - adventurous electronic cut-up pop music featuring Melissa Veras on vocals,
:papercutz main performer Bruno Miguel grew fond of the ambient genre ("much because of my love for movie
soundtracks") - and somehow managed to an impressive list of ambient music artists to rework the music on
Lylac.

To get you interested: "Do Outro Lado De Espelho - Lylac Ambient Reworks" contains remixes by folks like
Helios, Emanuele Errante, Simon Scott, Taylor Deupree, Autistici, Christopher Bisonnette, Jasper TX - and that's
not even everybody on the list!

Names like that are enough to trigger anyone interested in contemporary ambient music to check out this album.
I was going to write "to run to their record store" - but I'm afraid most records stores will not stock music like this
so you might check out the audiobulb website to order it directly from there.

While Lylac is adventurous enough to be enjoyed in it's own right (one seldom hears an album defying the
borders of different genres so effectively) - for Do Outro Lado De Espelho ("From the Other Side of the Looking
Glass") Bruno Miguel can be credited for opening a whole new perspective on ambience in music.

It still pop music, still, but with a dreamy, ethereal and cinematic twist seldom heard otherwise.

All remixing artists add a personal dimension to the original tracks. Their work is not ambient music in the
'soothing'sense: some of the reworks are emotionally quite harsh confronting. But on the other hand there's
some extremely romantic and touching remixes, like the Taylor Deupree version of Do Outro Lado de Espelho
or the Helios Lylac remix.

Ambient music has its own unwritten conventions of how it should sound, of when it's "deep" and of when it
might even be "art". From out of nowhere, this stunning :papercutz release overthrows all conventions and
shows there can be a perfect blend of ambient-, electronic and pop music.

All contributors to this album should be credited for that, as well as audiobulb for releasing a gem like this 'Do
Outro Lado de Espelho (Lylac ambient reworks)' marks the end of a chapter for :papercutz and simultaneously
opens a door for a new one." Bruno Miguel states. So who knows what the future may bring...!

AAA MUSIC

:papercutz, the Portuguese Electronic music project formed in 2005 by the only Bruno Miguel, after the
releasing of the critical acclaimed album Lylac in 2008, returns after two years with a new remix album: Do outro
lado do espelho (Lylac ambient reworks), It featured relevant ambient music artists like Taylor Deupree, Keith
Kenniff, Simon Scott among many others that Bruno personally invited to work on his music.

The result is a remarkable album characterized by dreaming atmospheres and the use of well chosen sounds,
clinks, background noises, repeated lines, voice echoing in the distance, all contributes to create a particular
arrangement for every tune.

The lead vocalist Melissa Veras sings gently, in Lylac her vocals are almost a sigh, while in Encantamento the
piano is the absolute starring, it could be a piece of classical music, with its moving crescendo.

The downside of this kind of work is that at an absent-minded listen tunes could sound very similar each other
and this is the risk that ambient music takes in general, but the bright side is that it will be definitely appreciated
by lovers of this genre for the real quality of this project.

Bruno Miguel made a brave choice, or a cunning one, but experimenting with music is always a good thing.

INCENDIARY MAG

A lovely album this, so nice in fact that I must admit that I haven’t got round to listening to the LP it is supposed to
remix: Lylac. The LP has the impression that it floats in a vat of its own making: Ultravioleta is a marvelous
example of this; a light breezy fancy that floats like gauze in a golden atmosphere.

At times there is a feel that we are listening to the soundtrack of one of those “smart”, über-techno cop dramas
that the US produces (you know; wondering, timorous piano passages that are quietly promising but never lead
anywhere substantial) but don’t let that put you off, the sensations are fleeting at best. And there’s enough sand
in the Vaseline to keep the most musically perverse happy. The female vocals often play a wicked game of making
you think you’re listening to hotel easy listening music until some concoction of electronics and discordant
scratches, clumps and nurdles destroy any worry that things are getting too smooth. Listen to tracks like He Can
Jog’s remix of A Way to Emerge, which really walks the line between begging to be skipped or turned off and
presenting something genuinely beautiful.

There’s a psychedelic edge to this record that conjures up some of the Cocteau Twins’ more dreamy moments as
well as some of the more drugged elements of Glide’s canon (check out the Emanuelle Errantee remix of All We
Have Left). A Secret Search is genuinely trippy, the beats and electronic squiggles disorientate the senses: it’s
difficult for the listener to come to terms with the track’s fractured melody and shifting vocals. Tracks like Do Outro
Lado Do Espelho also get the “Sigur Ros” treatment; namely, plaintive vocals and scratching, windswept sounds
over a gently plodding rhythm, but ‘tis is no bad thing.



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:Papercutz - Do Outro Lado Do Espelho (Lylac Ambient Reworks)

Natagpuan 17 mga kanta, tagal: 01:13:52
Encantamento
Encantamento
Encantamento
Lylac (Helios remix)
Encantamento (Sun Glitters Remix)
A Way to Emerge (He Can Jog remix)
Lylac (Helios remix)
The Gift of Self (Simon Scott remix)
Encantamento
Do Outro Lado Do Espelho (Taylor Deupree Remix)
Lost Boys (The Astroboy remix)
Broken Treasure (Jasper TX remix)
Do outro lado do espelho (Taylor Deupree remix)
...is fading (Feu Follet remix)
Caught in a Halo (Chris Bissonnette remix)
A Secret Search (Another Location Autistici remix)
Lylac (Helios remix)