Required
• 2x multiplug extensions, ideally universal with Euro and UK   (example)
• 1x any analogue mixing desk with 8-12 stereo inputs (jacks), such as Soundcraft Signature 12 or Tascam Model 12*
• IF POSSIBLE – 12x mono jack cables (i.e. 6.35mm / quarter-inch jacks)
• IF POSSIBLE – 1x/2x turntable (record player), such as Numark PT-One**
• Bottle of still water
• Patience and good humour

* I use sends/returns to effects pedals and back, in the dub tradition, make sure the mixer supports this and has plenty of AUX sends. If in doubt, give me the model of your mixer and I will research it),

** I won’t “scratch”, only sample through my pedals, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a DJ turntable, although that would be best. Any turntable is ok. If you cannot source this let me know in advance and we’ll think of something together.

Review from Vital Weekly, 
issue 1272

Guilhem All (Morbig)
Kurt Buttigieg (Unfolding)
Peter Sant (The Interior)

“One of the saving graces of lockdown is that people are at home. They have time on their hands, and they are getting creative. This is resulting in an explosion of new releases and labels.

One new label that is really exciting to me is Complex Holiday. Run by Kurt Buttigieg and Robert Farrugia they have so far put out four cassettes and a 12” since June 2020. The first two releases were strong. Ayn Il Widen’s ‘How to Remain in Perpetual Contact with Your Surroundings’ was a piece of wonderful ambient electroacoustic experimental pop and Robert Farrugia’s ‘Worn’ was filled with a glorious drone after drone. While all the releases created independently of each other, they all exhibit similar motifs and themes. Their forays into sound collage, drone and musique concrete and help to create the labels voice.

    While listening to Complex Holiday’s recent releases I am taken away to worlds with lurid landscapes. There is a wonderful woozy sway to ‘Confiance en Toi’, on Kurt Buttigieg’s ‘Unfolding’. The outro feels like a mixture of feedback, static and white noise. It is a fitting end to a song that is brought to mind what Woking looks like after the red weed has taken over in HG Wells’ ‘War of the Worlds’. It is utterly enchanting but there is a feeling of unease that creeps up your neck from the moment it starts and never quite leaves you. It’s wonderful.

    What makes these releases, and the previous two, so exciting is the mystery to them. What are these field recordings of? Where were they recorded and why? As there are no defined answers it is let to us, the listener, to try and piece it all together. This is where the enjoyment comes from. You hear a noise, and it reminds you of an old flat you lived in around 2006. A moment later there is a deep bassline that skews into an operatic section that reminds you of going to church as a child. But the soundscapes are abstract and it’s hard to come to conclusions that justify their brilliance. These releases show that Complex Holiday has a very bright future as long as it continues to release forward-thinking music like this. The complexity of the compositions is fantastic, as is the musician’s ability to make them incredibly captivating and playable. (NR)”

http://www.vitalweekly.net/1272.html

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Review by Christian Ciliano

“Kurt Buttigieg’s Unfolding is an album of mnemonic undulations.

In Confiance en Quoi, Buttigieg creates “a well of time” where notes akin to the classic sounds of the midnight hour result into a synaesthetic sonic experience, creating, in my mind, an image a clock under the waters of a well; an auditory manifestation of when time is comfortably sluggish for whoever perceives it, complemented by a tinge of classic foreboding. The sonic object then becomes tethered and sheds its liquidity in favour of a “half-loop” as the track shifts. This sonic embodiment of kronos, ringing to a half-point, being caught halfway in a loop becomes an experience commenced but which is denied a conclusion to the listener.

In this sense, we see the creation of a sound-maker who is acutely aware of psychological space, where time becomes a state of matter as it shifts from a chamber-like fluidity to flashing solidity.”

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Radio / Playlists

Slack City (UK), Signal to Noise ↝ 2 March 2021
Colaboradio (DE), Syrphe ↝ January 2021
Camp Radio (FR), Auricular Shelter ↝ Episode 31/01/21
Fango Radio (IT), Music For Your Eyes ↝ Episode 2
Lahmacun Radio (HU), Turmeric Acid ↝ Steep Gloss guest mix
Black Buddddah (BE), Antonin de Bemels ↝ October 2020 mix
Res.Radio (AT), Wiseup ↝ Utopias Jukebox: Sounds from Malta, 2024

Interviews

Interview with Ben Mifsud Joslin, 2024
MaltaToday Q&A, August 2024