Joe Colley - Project for an LP (Edition ..., 2004)

A fun act of chance operations provides the fodder for both an installation and recording project by Sacramento-based Joe Colley. Beginning with two identical mini discs, populated with ten brief noise fragments, five extended blocks of sound, and five silences of varying length, Colley set the players to random and fed their signals into another recorder, with each player occupying its own stereo channel. This recording became the source for an installation, wherein three turntables equipped with a test press of the minidisc recordings were each situated amidst a pair of oscillating fans. The fans act on the turntables in two ways: they push the tone arm to and fro, resulting in an additional level of randomization of the material and more prominently in the scraping of the stylus across the LP surface; additionally, the tone arm amplifies the fan motors, resulting in an all-pervading hum. Two recordings of the installation were made, one by Eric La Casa as he wandered around the room, undoubtedly inflicting his own mode of hearing on the document, and another by Colley himself, sitting back and presumably basking in his decision-less freedom.

Project for an LP

Pierre-André Arcand - Eres + 7 (Avatar / OHM Editions, 1992)

These are the first in three installments from Quebecois sound artist Pierre-André Arcand's Eres series, the flagship expedition for two of his self-made instruments. Primary vehicle here is his Macchina Ricordi, a modified recorder that accomodates both the tape loops and simultaneous overdubbing that enable his impromptu modernization of Revue OU lineage sound poetry. Sometimes added to this are tones produced by his sounding book, a small metal box played by scribbling on its surface with a microphone heard most prominently on the beginning two pieces. These frantic washes provide a sound bed for Arcand to lay his guttural ululations, which become alternately scattered and hypnotic via the macchina ricordi's capabilities. In addition to voice, Arcard unleashes the macchine on what most likely is a violin, dicing the scrapes with anything but a precise cut.

Eres + 7

Ora - Morgendämmerung 10" (Die Stadt, 2004)

Though originally conceived as a project by Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate, for these recordings Ora is the latter incarnation of Tate and Colin Potter--the same duo who later became Monos. Assisting them on "The Sun Sheds a Golden Tear" are Lol Coxhill and Daisuke Suzuki. The piece is built from recordings of a storm, expanding the sonic artifacts of wind and rain into a densely murky sound mass on top of which eerie but gentle tones emerge. The second piece, "The Impregnable", is built from a more monolithic mass, augmented by delay-swept time distortions and growing progressively more harsh. Both of these 1997 recordings were originally featured on their 1999 cd-r New Movements in G, but excluded from the two Ora retrospective cds.

Morgendämmerung

Gilles Gobeil - La Mécanique des Ruptures (Empreintes DIGITALes, 1994)

Gilles Gobeil's first collection of recordings covers a range of his electro-acoustic material dating between 1985 and 1993. Despite the broad time frame, the pieces are bound together by Gobeil's magnetic draw to bursts of sound, frequently of an industrial source or the Ferrari-esque door slam. His sonic events first present themselves as little windows into a scene, until some element leaps through the glass and leaving the prior sounds in a spiral of shards. This approach certainly makes for an action heavy listening experience, something that might exhaust some though I prefer work like to veer a little on the side of mania. A few pieces feature Suzanne Binet-Audet performing on an early electronic instrument called the ondes martenot, similar in sound though not construction to the theremin.

La Mécanique des Ruptures

Keith Berry - The Ear That Was Sold to a Fish (Crouton, 2005)

The Ear That Was Sold... is one of a handful of texturally intricate releases that British sound artist Keith Berry has issued either of his own name or as Brown Bunny. Delicate and deliberate in pace and seemingly low on events, the nine pieces here unravel in much the same way as stray notions do when one is on the brink of sleep. The body of each piece here is filled by a drifting drone mass underneath which a gentle rustle of incidental events occurs. Each of the nine is constructed with a rare level of patience and concentration, resulting in a rather subtle but interconnected whole. The disc was issued in a small box containing several blue flower petals, revealing a refreshing fragrance upon its opening.

The Ear That Was Sold to a Fish

Hands To - Nahza (Manifold, 1996)

Hands To was an early project of Jeph Jerman, occurring roughly alongside his participation in City of Worms. At its most embryonic state, the recordings were sampler and tape based, though as Jerman's interest in the acoustic interactions of objects manifested itself, so too did Hands To drift in that direction. Nahza came during that latter stage, built from a string of recordings made in various environments where man-made objects interact with one another at the hands of Jerman. Though the actual objects used remain unidentified, the sounds seem to be the result of friction and striking and tend to convey sources of metal and stone. The recordings were made with a significant gain level, allowing the sonorous nature of the environment in which they were made become a part of the listening experience.

Nahza

Philip Corner - Playing with the Elements (Edition Lebeer-Hossmann, 1985)

Something slightly out of character here from Philip Corner, whose non-instrumental works tend more often toward explorations of metal objects, these find Corner either in nature boy mode or in the lab/kitchen. The first was recorded by Bill Fontana, with whom Corner has frequently collaborated, and features an upclose rendering of several rocks being rubbed together along with Corner's breath as he guides the rocks along. Certain works from Akio Suzuki comes to mind, as well as more recent interests by Jeph Jerman among others. The two recordings that follow deal with applying heat to objects. The first captures boiling water, with the proximity of the microphone creating a rather immersive sound environment that steadies as a rolling boil is reached. The final is of the heating of stone to make terra cotta and is far more gentle a listen. Corner issued these recordings in a decorative box that also featured a small cloth bag containing several stones, a card insert, and the scores to these works.

Playing with the Elements