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Ampersand Etcetera – 2003_h
Ambient & microwave & electronica & experimental lowercase & postclassical & minimal & techno & etcetera
Three labels reviewed, that form an interrelated group pointing to each other and to past Ampersands. Plus four single disk reviews scattered between that further the net!
To come: Steve Roden, Taming Power, Accretions, Mystery Sea & Amongst Myselves. Plus???
Jeremy
ampersand@pretentious.net
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http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html
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Joel Stern & Anthony Guerra
Stitch
Impermanent Recordings ire004
http://laudible.net/impermanent
Ampersand began our relationship with these two in 2002_07 when Joel sent us some stuff, including a disk by Mattin, and following that Anthony's label 2000+ (including recordings by both) has popped up regularly, most recently in 2002_20. As with many of their other works, this is created from/with the guitar, electronics and field recordings. And while it is a bit of a cliché, this is a study in contrasts.
The opening track shows the way for much of the album – after quietness various noises emerge – twangs scrapes stretching buzzing that eventually settle with tones and ringing, somewhat musical, and finally a relaxed ambience. The next piece also is more ambient with siney tones, calckery guitar, clicking and tones. A short track of loose cable crackling leads into high tone, ticks and skittery chimey guitar with a puttering momentum. It becomes more ringing and slows over time, bringing n some bowed tones, whooshing brushes and pulses, and some very soft tones to a long fade.
The fifth track has some fairly straight guitar, playing descending motifs, swelling tones and going a little bit feral at the end. Multifaceted drones, hammering guitar, ticking, edgy feedback, scrapes all move around, changing foreground and echoing through your head, developing some edgy atonalities and contrasts. Another short piece of drone crackle fizzles and then a piece which develops quite some momentum with its scraping, cycle drones and pebble shakes.
Then the major contrast, the final extended track which is basically a lovely meditative guitar solo with some chopped and varied field recordings and samples ebbing and flowing behind – a delightful piece.
The first two thirds of the album are more demanding and complex, while the final track presents a more relaxed ease. Making for a great combination.
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Jad Fair & Jason Willett: Superfine (#67)
Jack Wright & Bob Marsh: Birds in the Hand (#69)
The Bunny Brains: Holiday Massacre '98 (#70)
Public Eyesore
http://www.sinkhole.net/pehome
Public Eyesore returns (last appearance 2003_a, and a few before that – 2002_10, 15, 17) with a couple of surprises. The first being that 2 of these come in jewel cases with screen printed disks. The other the 5 hours of music packed on one disk.
But, as you will see, PE continues its drive to pursue eclecticism.
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Fair and Willett are a prolific duo, and revel in the catalogue-size of some of their projects. And this one fits in with the 'more is good' philosophy: in addition to the 20 songs in 44 minutes making up the album, there are an additional 135 (yes 135) songs on an MP3 component to the disk adding an extra 4.5 hours to the projects. I would imagine this must be about the longest album in history, and perhaps should look towards the Guinness Book.
But size ain't all – what's the quality? To be honest I haven't listened to the whole MP3 bit, and think it would be a chore to go through from go to whoa. But. Willett writes and creates all the music (bar a very few guests) and Fair does the lyrics and sings. They are a lo-fi-ish set up, guitar and drums but with a surprising amount of processing and other messing around, and there are some reference points. The most obvious is Captain Beefheart – I haven't heard much but this reminds me of Doc and The Radar Station – in both delivery and music, at times Ween popped into my head, Lou Reed in one lyrical track and so on. Fair has a generally nasal drawled delivery, slow but with speed and volume where necessary.
This set has more variety than I expected when it arrived and I first put it on – there are a few basically instrumentals between the tracks for diversity, and the songs themselves are different and worked out.
Running through 20 sings, let alone 155, would be a bit tedious – they all fall within the broad genre constraints, but with variety. 'Superfine' for example is rhythm and melody guitar with noises (such as computer games) and a strange dialogue while 'Superfine pt.2' closes the album with a piano-based song. 'Punk rock 1996' has a noisey shouted part 1 and a fast and furious but restrained part 2. There is a poppy feel in the restrained 'Diamonds & rubies' while instrumentals like 'Take your place', Diamonds & gold' or 'Hooray for life' are looped and layered, demonstrating Willett's skills. Among the varied highlights are the sampled musical in 'That's a promise' and groovy loops in 'Movies', the lyrical 'I dream of angels', the guitar and cats of 'You and I', the grinding atonal underbeat from 'Summer sun'. Yeah, each little fragment has unique surprises, so I could go on!
As I said, it would probably be a bit overwhelming for 5 hours, but in album sized bursts this is a very enjoyable and entertaining surprise.
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Jack Wright plays sax and clarinet while Bob Marsh is a cellist (violin on one track) and processed vocalist. The six tracks are all improvised and contain the sorts of sounds you would expect from those instruments. The bird title, carried through to the tracks, is appropriate as there are warbles, twitters, squeaks, scrapes, plucks, picking and occasionally the instruments manage to wander into parts of the woodland where they sound 'normal'. Added to this is Marsh's vocals which are really are form of scat, mumbled and whispered, lightly modulated and modified.
Which makes this a hard album to describe, as it is all in the mood and the moment and descriptions bring it down. It is enjoyable – Wright and Marsh may wander the terrain with their instruments but they never take them to uncomfortable places; the sound is mellow and reflects their pleasure while never settling into an easy path; and there is sufficient variety through the mix of instruments and their skills with them to invoke new sounds.
So, if you are in the mood for wind and string improv, this is a definite goer.
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The five piece Bunny Brains further the lo-fi side of PE, shifting into a country punk vein. Guitars, from Dan Bunny, Raimondo Paolucci and Jim Roberto are the main noise creators (with some less obvious keyboards thrown in) but the drive behind the whole set (which sounds at times like a live recording) is Davo's bass – this is a powerful motivator in most tracks – with assistance from Peter Partenio's drums.
'Freshen up!' gives the band a chance to loosen up before dropping into a swamp rock groove, some primal lyric screams in there, dirty guitar slashes before some increasing feedback and then tape effects close. Shorter than its title 'Harm is coming to me every day in every way' plays some light guitar and throbs before the introduction of vocals (back country) into the mix with 'Stookey ring of evil' where the guitars provide twangs, big sounds and pyrotechnics. The drawled vocals in 'Upland lane' get drowned in the pumping punk country rocker with squarly guitar solo.
'Switchblade sister' gets a live announcement and is a slower number that reminds me of Neil Young – both in vocals and melody – particularly 'Roll another number' with some noise guitars instead of a chorus. Country rock again in 'Birty doots' with shouted chorus, short twangy guitar and possible keyboards. A wall of sound from 'Overdose of cum' and a suggestion we have entered part way in, eases rebuilds and then into a more tentative conclusion. That mood continues in 'Chocolate party', twice as long as other tracks which opens slowly with scratchy loops and simple guitar and then develops into more open and experimental areas than the rest of the album. Whispered vocals, scraping slide guitar builds to a bit of warbly rock in the last few minutes.
Into the final stretch of rock with the banjo loose rubbery 'Never did the deed', a brief improv in 'Robert is a corpse' then 'I love me do' driven by the bass and feedbacky guitar in the heavy instruments spoken word and a band intro which is of the Teddy Roxborough Group (?!) before a grungy climax. Dueling guitars spiral up through 'Plying and dying' into the late night meanderings of 'Greenwich mean sister' with some slurred Doors lyrics and chugging rhythm which is broken by a call of 'take 2' before continuing into the darkness.
Good time rock and roll – a hoot-nanny pleasure punk.
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Hardlein
Drei Wei?
Glare/Les Disques du Comp Glare06
http://glare.con.st/ruction
Svstriate's (2003_e) Glare label re-releases an album that was available from French label on-line Disque du Comp. A big Shell sign and a photo of a petrol (gas) station on the front indicate the source sound for this – recordings made in a petrol station at night (in France from the talking captured). It is not 'pure' –selection has been made of the sections, and there is some obvious manipulation and some probable. But it paints an impressive picture of the place – aligned in a zeitgeist way with the current crop of 'mall movies' like One Hour Photo or Punch Drunk Love where the urban environment is given a bleak and dark but strangely hypnotic power.
There are four tracks Inside: 'Knockies' sets the scene – we hear distant music from a loudspeaker, a white noise ambient recording hiss, random tapping, a growing humm and what sounds like organ music and some futtering. The tapping continues in '7 up' with a lighter background, then a regular empty resonant banging which is looped as a rhythm (THUD thudthud) and more organ music (produced via some processing I am sure) and the music and rhythms ebb grow and fade, voices coming in towards the end. We seem to be near a machine like a fridge in 'Toblerone', echoed muzak around, a swirling and little clunks, fading to a different machine which has high sprinkle tones in. The final Inside is 'Curly' with more hiss'n'tap, much less happening, soft looped chords/drones, calming to distant voices and squalls.
We then move Outside, where there seems to be more human activity, as there are a lot more voices. And we can tell we are in France. 'Lucky strike' has talking, slamming, banging and movement. There are squeaks, possible rain, cars going by, strange singing and a drone. Here is where things are getting further into the feeling of something impending – but who knows what! Things start to echo and then a percussive rhythm. 'Fanta' is a brief discussion, shifting to equipment sounds and then more talk before the long 'Stackers' where we get a 13 minute scene. There is talking, which seems often to come from a speaker or tannoy so perhaps there is an intercom system, cars, some echoing, whooshing (more sounds that appear intruded)l bikes, snatches of a song and talking that is broken into looped fragments. The overall ambience then returns of clearer conversations, the radio. A dream world which you drop into, ended as a big cleaning machine runs by, and the customers get in their car and drive off.
Then 'Mars' a wonderful abstraction and comment as Joan Jett sings 'I love rock and roll' as another car goes, the DJ introduces the next song, which takes the fade.
More than a petrol station, this is selected and manipulated carefully to create a significant ambience. Initially it may seem an oddity, but it is well worth revisiting and revising your view of the local servo.
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.murmer: Definition (#25)
Mattin & Rosy Parlane: Agur (#26)
Gareth Mitchell: August; Snow; Pieces (#27)
Absurd
http://www.anet.gr/absurd
Another label return (from 2003_c and beyond – 2002_15, 18, 19) and again a new format – two are in the Research Centre for The Definition of Happiness round card sleeves - but one is a 3" disk. Some links here – .murmer had his bake disk reviewed in 2002_09, and Mattin/Parlane were reviewed with material that Joel Stern sent to me for 2002_07.
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Working from a variety of everyday sound sources .murmer creates extended pieces that move significantly – on this set sources include a fluorescent light, trumpet, water bottle, freezer, rain and airplane landing gear (OK not all that everyday!) Except in the second track, for obvious reasons, I won't talk about where the sounds come from as the result is what counts.
A billowing ringing is reverbed and delayed, gradually getting longer and gaining some complexity as 'Oracle extended' begins. A long high tone joins plus an growing ensemble of little noises – ticktock tushes, percussives, floush – as different parts of the tone bed seem to move to the foreground. Sometimes there is an almost voice like tone, and as time passes the busy foreground becomes more active and dominates as the back loops fade. The tone and percussion get power/play/ful broadening and intensifying, a squeaking passes through the sound space (almost a pre-ghost of the next tracks bike), more tones join before fading drones.
'Spoke speak' gives away its source – a bicycle wheel – and starts as you would expect with picked and plucked spoke music that sounds like a thumb piano, then some processing starts to work in – reversed sounds, changes of pitch, echoing. These are looped and layered to quite dense levels, with some ebb and flow. Just as it gets predictable a faster twanging comes in to provide a pattering variation, then another faster again driving to a climax including shimmers, strange deep noises, a sound like sheep or horns, fluttering and then dropping away.
A glacial development occurs in 'Liquid solid' (I had noted glacial as a response before noting the title). A lovely multi-toned drone together with a crumbling soft plip-plop pattering open it out. Then a tapping and a warble-drone join moving in a relaxed and absorbing way. An occasional soft rumbling whoosh runs under, moving closer to the surface at times. The drones change a little, a high string tone joins in, and this gorgeous track continues it slow journey to a stripping away at the end.
.Murmer works his material into excitingly diverse regions, and this album has a very satisfying range.
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Mattin and Rosy Parlane offer a single piece recorded live last year on a 3" disk – so about 20 minutes long, but with an active flow that suggests a longer piece. There are no details here, but the last disk saw Mattin on computer and RP on percussion, and that seems to be the set-up, though not very obvious percussion. A very high sine tone with pops and clicks at times and some breaks is accompanied by rumbling percussion at times to open the session. There are shifts in direction which flow on from the on-going parts but give some idea of the variation. Here a stretched scraping enters and a hiss cycle. There are plosives and the hiss increases, and this section plays with the plosives/hiss/scrape sounds. A ringing bell sound with clicks and cord crackles and humms joins, again mixing around; reverbed humming with a high sine and more loose cable crackles and blurting. Then an extended section of spaced out (in time) burrs and crackles, the burr pulsing a slow rhythm and some white noise builds. It sticks and then a short period of percussive sounds and little noises. A high soft sine pulses and some low rumbling that waver and continue, deep throbs, quite a warm sound, crickles and percussive noises. Then a note that sounds like a bowed violin (do we have to retrospectively reassess the sounds?), and percussion that sounds more drummy. A drilling buzz, feedback hum and more drills, builds with drones and scraplings, with other noises, but the main build to a buzzy noisey climax that drops to a tone and percussion for the last few seconds.
Actually quite a delicate piece, lightly combining divergent sounds in a satisfying work of about the right length.
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I will take the parts of Mitchell's album title as the three track names. As such, 'August' is a difficult opener – it is very difficult to listen to as tiny crackles pops and scratches alternate with loud thuds and scrapey cycling, puttering and metal twangs. You turn it up to listen and then bang, your ears go. But only a few minutes.
'Snow' is the long centrepiece. It has two main parts – the first is a gradual accumulation of percussion and percussive sounds. Little bell-like noises gradual building in volume and density with a cycling behind get stretched into a buzz tone, developing a groove. Deep reverbed ringings behind, escape and take over filling and encompassing the sound space. Resonances and echoes build as more ringings are woven in, sounding like various treated percussions. It becomes a steady burring with pulses, then falls to a looping sequence that sounds like a strummed series of xylophone keys that slowly fades away. Then a soft whispering builds as a tingling drone with a fuzzy tone and high organ-like element, resonant deep tapping and clipping drip sounds. The drones fade to a climax of the chimey tapping with a hissing main, before the last couple of minutes as a ringing buzz drops to a very quiet ringing that briefly varies.
Then 'Pieces' – short again opening with a chirruping of loud, high pitched crickets that zoom around shouting harshly, a touch musical at times. It gradually draws back from the edge, becomes less fractured and settled with long tones, hollow sounds, soft fuzz click, building to a cycling noise before fading to a crackle and tone.
The album strikes a difficult balance, with the two more aggressive pieces bookending the longer, more flowing piece – but it does achieve that balance and poise.
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Headphone Science
We Remain Faded
No Type IMNT080
http://www.notype.com
More from No Type – following from the bulk seen just recently in 2002_f. Another ep, there are also some vinyl ones on the way, participating in the No Type real/on-line series.
'We remain faded' is basically an instrumental – long soft tones, rapid rim hits dancing over the sound space, a strong bass and crunchy claps giving a rhythm with squiggles and scrapes over. Some bigger washes and breath like snatches together with interference stutters complete the main underbody, and then a slow melody slides through creating a lovely relaxed mood over the shifting ground – some breaks for a breather but nicely balanced. The next track, 'Games', is the one that was on the sampler and is a 10 minute delight. Tones, occasional cat squall (that signals direction changes) and a strong drum rhythm have thrown highly chopped and looped rap over them – some words are seperable, but it is mainly a chopping jump. There is a deep synth melody, and the male rap is replaced by a woman. Some echoed twangy synth lines and some boppy ones and an extended instrumental period ensues, the voices return before instrumental final section ended by some woodblockey tuned percussion. An exciting track.
Those two track totalled 18 minutes, making half the album. Thus the next four take the other half. In 'Larcenous' big grooves support the 'lyric' line which begins sensibly then becomes chopped and turns into a melody line. The main melodies, though, are a pair of slow synths, one high the other lower, that create a stately semiclassical mood. There are contrasts in 'Air bubble material' as ratchetting and a dense crackling rhythm are joined by slow tones which sound like string samples, insects leap about and a higher lyrical line runs through.
'To dine in distance' begins with some concrete – walking round, a camera motor – then shifts to some loungey jazz with trumpet and a romance/soap sampled conversation. After a minute or so they both go 'choppy', swirling and churning over a steady rhythm, then the trumpet goes solo, before an acoustic guitar and straight-trumpet take the final moments. The album ends with 'Life struggles constant' where buzzy blurts shift from side to side then long organ tones join with clickety blip-hop, high flitters and chopped rap-voices, before it all gets loopy to the end.
This album works on rhythms and contrasts – voices in sense and fragments, hip-hop and classical sensibilities – to create a very entertaining mix.
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Violet: Let The Sunshine In
Normal Music: "Brev"
Andrey Kiritchenko: Interprets Second Violin (ve.cond.sio.lin)
Rinius van Alebeek: Kulissen Abriss
Violet Shifts: Resista Mold
Zeromoon ZER0003-R, 6, 7, 8 and 9
Jeff Surak is part of V., which was V.V. and is now Violet, and also a member of Second Violin – seen first here in 2001_19 and then again in 2002_10 with V.'s Public Eyesore (the links, the links) release. Zeromoon is his label and web site (with archival MP3s made available monthly) and this is a recent set of 3" releases. Editions are small, 50 or less, but perhaps realistic in today's market.
Music for record player, guitar, autoharp and tape make up 'Let The Sunshine In' with a long track and three shorter subsequent ones. ''Kwangmjonghoehle' seems to be a compilation of various pieces – pulsing tones with machine cycling and additional mechanical loops and clicks, cycling wash; a brief run off groove and musical snatch; the first part returns simpler with a high ringing cycle in, easing to a pulse and crickle click and pingling music, changing foregrounds and easing back; a very crackling vinyl fanfare with resonant gong notes, more details emerging from the crackling vinyl, a buzzing, snatches of voices and gulls, and then a rolling noise which could be an LP rotating, a chugging, out. The vinyl is even more obvious in 'Songdowon' as a big extended orchestral chord with a click in it loops on and on, slightly changing – at one stage you can hear three notes in it and a higher tone, but goes back to the dense single note. 'Ufer des botong' starts as bubbly soft percussion and synth loops with buzz and pulses, building speed and threatening to jump out at you; then a clattering like a fan and a motorbike buzzing; before backt o a fuzzier version of the first part with varying tones and pulses. Finally 'Wonsan' another very scratchy sample with an orchestral soundtrack piece that has a slightly tinny distortion.
A light hearted romp, reflected by the images on the cover that seem to have a 50s optimism about them. Enjoyable.
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Normal Music play close to that – some rather funky glitch. Scrabbly abstract loops under 'Kolli' provide a site for rhythms and melodic fragments, longer chords, possible phonemes in a musical number. 'Frankera' compiles phone tones, skitters and drum loops then a click before futzy clicking, guitar and sonar tones before big descending tones at then end. A scrabbling groove through 'Korrespondens' with bells and rollicking insects completed by female announcements. Scrapes and solid dum rhythms show that 'Emballage' is going in the same direction, a solid bass providing the melody with jitters and skitters over. And a change of mood in 'Porto' which allows us down gently with humming and a slower beat, relaxed and lovely.
The 3" format is almost too small to hold this – it is jumping out all over the place and crying out to keep on going. So it just has to be hit the repeat button and enjoy the grooves.
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In his interpretation of Second Violin Kiritchenko creates a complex piece that leans towards improvised electronica. Over a slowly developing rumbling and schwasshing sound there a squelches and little crickles, ratchets, a growing metallic percussion (that reminded me of the scene when cutlery fell out of Harpo's coat). Squeaky scrapes become more cohesive, we can hear the instruments in them. A blowy drone builds and the balance of the elements changes, the drone dominating, dropping away and then returning. Falling right away into the second half with little buzz scratching and regular tippety tap increasing, squeaks and a rapid chit rhythm building spreading and this part becomes a more rhythmic almost techno with lots of rhythms, deeper note bases and quite bright.
This is an intricate piece but with a delicacy which allows it to hide itself in a background ambience or work its way directly into your consciousness.
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Van Alebeek's disk is an interesting combination of site recordings and philosophy. Recorded earlier this year in Berlin-Dresden-Wuppertal it opens with a triptych of short pieces that sound like someone driving around hearing fireworks – there are bangs, whizzes, some crowd noises and a terminal 'wow'. The second track has a motor humming, steps and an interference buzz, some crowds and then a woman (Barbara Gessner) reads a letter about recordings and then disgust at their country's war mood (the US?). A softer male voice reads the same a little delayed. There are big noises, a tram, and another. Some radios and more fireworks and finally a park with birds, talking and a radio playing something Middle Eastern. In a large space someone gives a talk, almost understandable, as buckets clatter and things scrape in the distance. The woman again, saying existence and aesthetic meaningfully, a piano plays quite extensively. Moving in another large space, a woman speaks German, there is chittering, banging, distant singing and tapping on the mike. And finally a man talking about senses, everything we are surrounded by caring for us, society and music taking us to the gates of hell, as traffic pasess.
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With Violet Shifts we see Surak team up with Frans de Waard for a pair of droners. In 'Jubilant horde' a ringing cycling drone with a scrapey clutter echoes in your skull, andslowly modulates, fading down and becomes a more ringing with pulses and some squidging as a new tone enters too. More chiming in 'Square is mobbed' a bit phonelike , metallically pulsing, and as in the first track it eases over the period to a subtle extended ringing. Constructed from guitar and autoharp, this is simply a pair of simple subtle tracks that work wonderfully in that region beyond words.
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A fine set of disks full of pleasures that arrive from some very different directions
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Various Artists
sub.terra
The Foundry/Hypnos Fou.019
http://www.foundrysite.com
The Foundry returns with an intriguing concept. John Koch-Northrup (Interstitial) has created an experimental/jazz soundwork, the eponymous 'sub.terra', solely on trumpet. Then components have been given to four artists to work with and from, and their pieces complete the album.
The title track opens the album with atmospheric trumpet-drones, short twinkles and extended notes in a slow fanfare. A touch of cymbals, rumbles under and fragmented horn calls, we get a sense of floating through space, or a great underground cavern, as echoes create a sense of distance and soft machines ply. At this stage, you wonder, why? Why take one instrument and create a panoply of sounds which could have been created more easily on a computer. But then you sense the clarity of the brass sound, the integration of tonalities and you can hear why. The rumble builds and there are more melody layers playing motifs, deeply resonating. A long call runs through, resonating at the end, and perhaps the space you are in is the Minotaur's lair. A highly evocative piece.
Vir Unis takes a densish part of trumpet and adds a vinyl click-loop to it on 'Burning champa' with a muttering loop that builds and is then joined by a variety of rhythm loops. These are foregrounded and the trumpet becomes an atmospheric backdrop for melody and click loops that bubble along with computer burbles and the occasional move forward from the trumpet.
I had written 'invocation' in my notes on vidnaObmana's piece before noting it's title – 'Ceremonial'. Taking some long rising and falling tones stretched from the original, he layers light tones, bamboo flute, and voice-sounds pulsating around it, building to create the mood reflected in the title. There are more trumpet calls deep within, but they are distant highlights as it falls into a long fade.
In the first part of 'Lisboa' Saul Stokes modulates a pulsing fizzy drone with fast tapping and long horns samples that have computer flitters around them. Squidgy chunky rhythms drop in, and the horn falls from being an equal player to a more support role. Finally the rhythm gets fast chopped, the horn rises up and then drops back again as a bloopy fast salsa mood takes the ending.
M Bentley probably places the most emphasis on the source with drone pulses, eerie long calls, parts that sound like voices and little calls building and flowing dramatically using the pure tones of 'From there …'. Then swaps in the second part to a puttering swirl that is less dense with high tones ringing through and direct trumpets.
Finally the circle is completed as Interstitial takes what the others have done and creates 'Solitude'. This doubles the length of the original and takes it through more changes – in the early stages there is some tick-tick rhythms, more swirling synths, bass and flute; then a rhythm enters and it builds to a climax before droney rolling shimmers building again; then the trumpet re-emerges and plays gently as lighter tones swell and then a slow wind down.
The format of this collaboration places a distinct limit on its moods and structures – the atmospheric nature of the title track underscores all the subsequent pieces even when rhythms are introduced. That constraint, though, determines that the result is more coherent and plays subtle and ingenious games with the mood. Dark and contemplative, this is a satisfying whole.
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And of course, all past issues, with hundreds of reviews, on site.
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