CONVOLUTION, 1 TO 5, Smoke and Convolution Goes West
Mark Cunningham used to play guitar in Mars, one of the more thoughtful groups participating in NYC's No Wave scene on the late 70s and early 80s. Now based in Barcelona, he contributes trumpet and groovebox (combining drum machine and processed electronics) as half of the electro-visual duo Convolution he shares with guitarrist, vocalist and visual artist Silvia Mestres. Consisting of a mini-album, an EP and a live set, this trio of Convolution CDs offers a multifaceted overview that still misses one crucial component - the visual projections that accompany them live./ The overwhelming mood coming off 1 To 5 is melancholy. Stylistically, Convolution's music occupies a mid-ground between Jon Hassell and Ben Neill. The opening track "Psycholution" is driven by a trumpet motif over a gloomy bass-heavy electronic rhythm, like Herb Alpert walking up in a spaceship. When he improvises, however, alternating between long, sonorous proclamations and agitated tonguing and smears, Cunningham sounds closer to Don Cherry. Adapted from William Blake's "Songs of Innocence", "The Blossom" sets a poignant trumpet atop a multitracked one-man orchestra, while Mestres intones the legend of the sparrow seeking solace in the author's blossom - hence the soundtrack's repetitive heartbeat. As musical Blake adaptations go, this pitches down midway between David Axelrod and Mike Westbrook./ By way of contrast, the Smoke EP is Convolution's medidation on Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" riff. The track undergoes five remixes. The most impressive is Jakob Draminsky Hojmark's "Blue Smoke", which simply yet passionately presses Cunningham's now very Miles Davis-like trumpet against an arrhythmic backfround marked out by a heartbeat. On "Trill 61", a hyperactivity of trumpet, electronics and guitars threatens to engulf the riff altogether./ When "Trill 61" reappears on Convolution Goes West - compiled from performances in Knoxville, Columbus and Chicago - the "Smoke" riff has completely vanished. The set's performances of "Psycholution" and "No West" are noticeably more feral and tactile than the studio versions. The music works well enough without the duo's visual projections. Stripped of studio effects, meanwhile, "The Blossom" morphs into a more carnal torch song, while Mestres' interpretation of a song called "La Frontera Del Cuerpo", over a near drum 'n' bass backdrop, underlines Convolution's quiet power. By Marcello Carlin. Wire 225, November 2002

CONVOLUTION - Goes West (CD by Spooky Sound) and 1 to 5 (CD by Sublingual)
Convolution is Mark Cunningham (trumpet and groovebox) and Sylvia Mestres (guitar and voice). The name of Mark Cunningham brings back to my memory the 'no wave' bands from New York in the early 80s: Mars, John Gavanti and Don King. Later Cunningham collaborated with Foetus, Fist of Facts (post-Liquid Liquid), Rudolph Grey, a.o. Most of these later works I missed. And now, after a very long gap, I have some new music by Cunningham coming out of my speakers. Veteran Cunningham moved to Barcelona in 1991 and developed the Raeo concept. He released two cds with this project. He worked together with Pascal Comelade, groups such as Beef, Etant Donnés and Telefilme. In 1997 he released his first solo cd 'Blood River Dusk'. For this cd Cunningham was assisted by Sylvia Mestres. From this collaboration grew Convolution a multimedia project. Sylvia Mestres is also responsible for the visuals (powerful slide paintings). Listening to the cds of Convolution the records of Jane and Jeff Hudson came to my mind for a moment. There are some similarities. The Hudsons also released some music on the Lust/Unlust label in the beginning of the 80s, just like Mars. But what is more important, both use a simple and effective musical concept: songs with minimal electronic rhythms, the dark voice of a female singer and, in the case of Convolution, etherical and echoing sound outbursts of the trumpet in the centre. The sound of his trumpet playing inevitably reminds you of the trumpet of Jon Hassell. Short guitar interruptions complete the music of Convolution. There music is hypnotic and repetitive, song-structured, simple and effective.(DM). Vital weekly 309. 24/01/02

Subterranean whirls
Convolution. Place and date: Sidecar, 16/X/2001. Donat Puig
Starting a new season of the G's Club (¡already 11!). Sidecar welcomed Convolution, artistic marriage formed by Silvia Mestres (known especially for her visual artwork) and the American established in Barcelona Mark Cunningham (Mars, Don King, Raeo...). The proposal came alive with the trumpet and the "groovebox" of Cunningham and the electric guitar and voice of Mestres, responsible as well for the projections on the back of the stage as well as on the skin and the clear clothes of the musicians. The art of Convolution is situated somewhere amidst the least predictable ambient, jazz and rock. In the repertoire the instrumental songs ("Psycholution", "No west"...) ruled; and among the songs with text were "The blossom", from William Blake. With a happily milesdaviessian trumpet attack and several distortions, the duo transported us to new territories where heaven and hell get confused: at the bottom of fast and stimulant whirls. La Vanguardia. Friday, october 19th 2001. Experimental music critic.

TIME OUT NEW YORK MAGAZINE. Picks July 5th, 2001

Convolution + Arto Lindsay with Ikue Mori and Alan Licht (Tonic, Sat 7)
Because onetime Mars man Mark Cunningham is one half of the Barcelona-based Convolution, you're forgiven for thinking this is a no-wave reunion. But while Lindsay, Mori and Licht's freeform rock set might fly on the wings of some no-wave tension. Convolution's noirer-than-noir trumpet, voice and effects thing is loaded with a more subtle menace. Cunningham and partner Silvia Mestres are on to something darkly magical.

CEC-Philadelpia newsletter July 8th

...deeply distorted guitar, breathy vocals, trumpet, synth. Sounds like: balloon animals mid-contortion, Latin Jazz, rainy island nights locked inside of a haunted house, and the hot & cold soundtrack to an ever-morphing poetry book. convolution(math.): The behavior of a linear, continuous-time, time-invariant system with input signalx(t) and output signal y(t) is described by the convolution integral

Chat comments on Philly show: Convolution were pretty neat. It was really cool how Mark Cunningham used the echoes of his horn to play large parts of songs. Plus hearing a trumpet on top of a beat box/synth is not an everyday occasion for me. The effects and the guitar, combined with beautiful/vibrant and radiant slides (which were like giant/small paintings projected onto the duo) made a wonderful combination ... especially when they did that jazzy song with the female vocals and the horn effects.
July 8, Gina Renzi melds dance to trance at Community Education Center with NYC No Wave progenitor Mark Cunningham's diabolical Convolution, Philly-ite Tara Burke's bell-and-sad-whistling Fursaxa (check out her new CD Mandrake quick, quick) and PATCO-travelling Murcury. Noise DJ/taped-voice-abuser Cunningham and his wife, Silvia Mestres, will be - as on their eponymous new CD - rattling the bones of ancient Barcelonian illbient cha cha with televisuals and raw trumpeting to match.…

CREATIVELOAFING.COM Atlanta

Convoluted: Thursday night, downtown's Eyedrum gallery hosted another of its inscrutable music shows. The headliner was the duo of Mark Cunningham and Silvia Mestres, who call themselves Convolution. Accompanied by electronic percussion loops, Cunningham and Mestres created harsh, echo-heavy, extremely repetitious soundscapes with their trumpet and guitar. The room was dark except for abstract images the band projected onto themselves and the wall behind them. Most of the slides projected onto Cunningham had patterns that effectively camouflaged him, turning the evening into an avant-garde game of Where's Waldo. I didn't really understand it, but since their name is Convolution, that was probably the point.

The Nashville Scene newspaper. Critics'picks July 12-19th

Convolution, described as a "total artistic alliance" between Cunningham on trumpet and Barcelona visual artist/singer Silvia Mestres, stakes out common ground between the freest of jazz and rock forms and ambient electronica. The result is music that is compelling and enjoyable and not complacent. And Mestres'accompanying visuals are absolutely stunning.(For proof, visit http://www.arrakis.es/~silmes). Anyone self-satisfied that everything has been done before-in visual art or music-needs to find out otherwise at this 9:30 p.m. show at ruby green contemporary art center. C.D.