Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Lullatone – We Will Rock You… To Sleep (Audiodregs)

Posted: 03 May 2009 04:30 PM PDT

Essentially a sampler introduction to Lullatone as prelude to the release of Songs that Spin in Circles. Thematically gentle tender sleep rendered music, first wrought in the mode Shawn James Seymour as a method of working at night while vocalist and partner and Yoshimi Seymour slept. The arrival of their child Niko also seems to have provided inspiration for this collection of electronic lullabies whose intricate and delicate glistening easily seduces the listener. Conceptually it could be said to be in the form of music for babies, if this concept were not derived from the 'play Mozart to them to increase their intelligence' but that formal aspects of music provided excellent tools for the calming of the young as well as being in themselves intelligent and well wrought popular formal exercises.
Cuteness is essentially a guise, however endearing.

In Marching to sleep a combination of excellent glockenspiel brightness with marching tempo drumming, clever sampled marching feet, delicate vocal, sampled and played in a simple round acts both as an effective device as well simple beauty. Good Morning Melody opens with warm trinkling electronic tones, and a insistent wistful narrative of awakening towards the day. Leaves Falling includes guitar and glockenspiel combination in bright patterns, introducing modes of effect on guitar elements moving it akin to a bouzouki and a crisp click keeping time. The final track is supremely effective and deceptive: Kitty Coda (extended lullaby mix) builds and intertwines simple and intricate rhythm and melody structures in a gentle brightness that whilst succumbing to its soporific spell you also know the intricate beauty holds within it a distillation of musical knowledge that makes this a quiet gem.

Innerversitysound

Ferran Fages – al voltant d’un para/.lel (Etude)

Posted: 03 May 2009 03:46 AM PDT

Barcelona based musician and poet Ferran Fages often wields the pen, guitar, acoustic turntable, electronics, no-input mixing board and other devices in collaborations with collective IBA and the well received Cremaster project with Alfredo Costa Monteiro. al voltant d'un para/.lel sees a solo Ferran concentrate solely on guitar compositions and is recorded from a live performance.

Tonal decay and resonant qualities of the guitar are focal points here with composition and instrument in an interplay for formative space and control. Such a tendency sees a strikingly sparse sense of what could be called rhythmic orientation towards a concentration on the full resonance of chords with associated intertwined and extended flourishes overlayed until decay. Then next resonant possibility or theme plays out.

Listening here often the question of the influence of effect devices raises its head, as if devices of sound manipulation have influenced the compositional structure of the acoustic. Akin to discussions between peacocks and chainsaws (David Attenbrough) or Electronics and Didgeridoos (Aphex Twin) as a notion of the mirror or imitation. Here guitar appears to take on the inclinations of other devices which could be considered as strategies, methods or merely reflections of the devices residual presence.

Other ways of conceiving it could be as stripped down minimal guitar, yet this approach is stymied by the resonant warmth and emotional depth displayed, as opposed to a seemingly dry approach to formal aspects of structure. It is not just the silence of the crowd that inspires reverence in the listener here, their applause eventually breaking of this stance closing the album, but the ability to inspire such hushed and reverential mode in an audience is a quality that Ferran Fages work elicits.

Innerversitysound