Friday, June 26, 2009

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Link to Cyclic Defrost Magazine

Various Artists – Rhythm (Cherry Music)

Posted: 26 Jun 2009 12:07 AM PDT

Rhythm
When I look at a table I see a tree. When I look at a plane I see a bird. Call me obtuse but the abstraction of nature into formed objects does not strike me as an ambiguity or something to create a movement around. So when it comes to listening to a compilation of field recordings of industrial machinery, robotics, adjustments of a car mirror, boat ropes, streetcar, rainclock… ,as presented on this compilation Rhythm , I am almost ready to go marching down the street with a placard bearing 'don't just protect your environment, create it'. That the sense of field recording presented on this disk is of some of the highest standard these ears have heard yet and that the subject matter is not of the obvious nature sounds is quite an obtuse joy.

Peter Cusack's (England) 'Through the Robots' opens the album with a pristine rhythm sound movement of the abstracted sound world that is high tech industrial endeavor of the robotic construction within the Jaguar car manufacturing plant. It is quite a swingless noise affair, oh joy! Erick La Casa (France) matter of fact documentation of a mill in 'Clisson: Moulin de Gervaux' captures all the sounds of the movement and play of the building condensed and heightened showing all the movements and tensions of this active building. Takahiro Kawaguchi (Japan) recording 'for example #01' is the strangest placed on the album as it is a atmospheric recording set in a rural setting with a repetition of the number one at distinct intervals. Dale Lloyd (USA) '1928 Australian Streetcar' is just that, a journey in such a streetcar, (American for tram), presumably through San Francisco, with all the ensuing noise of the device, passengers and environs.

It's almost a disappointment that this album closes with Walter Tilgner's (Germany) 'Tag, Mittelspecht', which is a gem of nature recordings from his Spring Concert in Riverrain Forest album. It is hard to discern whether it is a condensed and constructed nature symphony or a presentation of found sound. Tilger (born 1934) has a long history in this field and a great number of releases to his name and the general idea of field recordings owes a great deal towards this tendency. That this album ends in this place, which is perhaps a sense of its forms beginnings, is interesting in the idea of the compilation as a through international survey of the contemporary practice of field recordings.

Felicity Mangan – Lumetorm (Sound & Fury)

Posted: 25 Jun 2009 09:52 PM PDT

Felicity Mangan Lumetorm
Having spent November and December in 2008 in Estonia, as artist in residence at MoKs (Center for Art and Social Practice) during the winter period, Felicity Mangan has created Lumetorm, literally meaning Snow Storm in Estonian. The compositions on this album derive from an assortment of sources ranging from field recordings (birds, frogs, wind, babies, street noises, windchimes…) to the more traditional instrumentation of the guitar, or to the more oblique such as paper bags. As composition it pertains more to the idea of sound design, whereby the elements of sound are manipulated for effect, and the performance nature of Mangan's work tends to be an effects driven construction of collated and improvised sounds.

As a work it is described as "Fragile Compositions gently crafted" and to a great degree this is true as it is not bombastic or confronting as sound collage but spatial and discrete; purposefully environmental sound. The notion of a constructed picture of snow storm is not as apparent, certainly there is a sense of detachment and the knowledge of place and location of the recordings of sound is conveyed, as much by the information as by the sound, but as an entrance to the idea of a snow storm the album lacks descriptive power. While the demand for declarative precision may be misplaced, the ability to make clear knowledge and precise descriptions through sound is perhaps part a sense of what the term sound design pertains. The greatest sense of this within the album is on 'Autumn Cusp' which builds a complex array of sounds into a quiet sonic fury enveloped by a cloud of static noise.

'Tea Tree' with its strangeness of atmosphere and melodic guitar line is excellent as well, yet a too short or underdeveloped piece. The final track 'Frogi' combines a number of field recordings both as loops and collage suggesting clearly a nature tableau which besides it's constructed nature differs little from the experience of an evening within a wetlands hinterland or similar frog habitat. That these final two pieces are detached from the idea of a Lumetorn suggests a seemingly incoherent design strategy by Mangen for this album which in retrospect diminishes an experience that within it’s boundaries was generally a quiet treat.

Innerversitysound.

at 5:55 PM