flor.con.venas is the solo project by sound artist Mariela Arzadun from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The sounds on this album come from a wide variety of sources, including field recordings, electronic glitches, acoustic guitars, and spoken words. Musically, the arrangement of sounds is similar to Raster-Noton artists such as Alva Noto or Ryoji Ikeda, except for the use of non-electronic sounds. But each track seems to be arranged in the same tempo, with all of the sounds arranged into a fractured rhythm. The sounds tend to be hard panned, abrupt and clipped, and usually loop several times; however, this never approaches sounding anything like dance music. A few tracks (especially #2) feature a few melodic snatches of acoustic guitar, but most of the disc seems to focus on rhythmic repetition out of not necessarily musical sounds.

This is a curious little album, and more confusing than its musical content is the resemblance of its artwork to Autechre's last album (this album was recorded in 2006 but released in 2008). It's pretty enjoyable if you like glitchy stuff, though. Just beware that the last 10 minutes are near-silent and sound like your CD player is skipping. 7/10 -- Paul Simpson (28 January, 2009)