Articles
2009 Artists' Picks
Lymbyc Systym
Albums
Cory Allen
aus
The Bird Ensemble
Canaille
Catlin & Machinefabriek
Greg Davis
Loren Dent
Dirac
Drafted By Minotaurs
Flica
Sarah Goldfarb & JHK
Gown
John Hollenbeck
Viviane Houle
I/DEX
Akira Kosemura
Andrew McKenna Lee
Le Lendemain
LRAD
Lymbyc Systym
Melorman
Muskox
The Mercury Program
Nikasaya
Northerner
nörz
Noveller / Aidan Baker
Redshape
Marina Rosenfeld
Stripmall Architecture
Sturqen
Wes Willenbring
The Tony Wilson Sextet
Julia Wolfe
Peter Wright
Zelienople
Compilations / Mixes
Blackoperator
Glimpse Four:Twenty 03
Kod.eX
Portland Stories
EPs
Molnbär Av John
Tommi Bass & B.B.S.C.
Julian Beau
Colours-Volume 5
Dalot
Echologist
Simon James French
Geiom & Shortstuff
General Elektriks
Geskia
Ernest Gonzales
Gradient
Jacksonville
Joker
Ann Laplantine
Loko
Machinefabriek
Stefano Pilia
Damian Valles
Tim Catlin & Machinefabriek:
Glisten
Low Point
Machinefabriek: Loops for Voerman
Machinefabriek
Glisten combines the collaborative talents of Melbourne, Australia-based Tim Catlin (guitars, effects) and Machinefabriek (additional sounds and editing by Rutger Zuydervelt from Rotterdam) on nine tracks of low-key soundsculpting. The tracks are spectral and noctural in spirit, and the album's thirty-five minutes often resemble psychic disturbances pushing their way into semi-consciousness. Apparently Zuydervelt happened upon Catlin's work, specifically his 2007 Radio Ghosts release, when he was researching information on prepared guitar, and a subsequent partnership developed. With respect to production process, Caitlin created prepared guitar recordings of diverse character (from experimental to conventional picking), and then passed them on to Zuydervelt for further manipulations. The two gravitate towards understatement in their focus on the minutiae of the guitar and the broad sound field that can be extricated from it. The nine tracks feature ripples and vibrations (“Flutter”) and spectral drones of soft gamelan bell tones (“Glisten 1”), and while the electric guitar is dominant , the acoustic has a moment in the spotlight too (“Arpeggio”). With its childlike tinkles floating over darker tones, “Ghostbox” introduces a macabre ambiance that calls to mind the disturbed mood of The Turn of the Screw. Glisten is largely a subdued, ‘headphones'-styled album, though “Haul” proves the exception to the rule when it rises from an initial organ-like drone episode to one where the guitar first simmers, then smolders, and eventually snarls before abruptly terminating. That loud flourish is conspicuous by being the only one of its kind on this otherwise carefully controlled collaborative outing.
Loops for Voerman is an animal of a slightly different kind, though not one entirely unlike Glisten in spirit. In this case, Zuydervelt created a musical piece for an art installation sculpture by Rob Voerman (originally presented on a three-way speaker system in September 2009 at Leidsche Rijn Park in Utrecht) that's presented in a single, fifteen-minute form. It's a haunting work where bowed string tones scrape against, puncture, and repeatedly pierce a bed of gloomy twilight intonations. Though the piece may be predicated upon a loop-based cycling of sounds, it never feels repetitive in any strict sense but rather like a constant unfolding through alternating moments of metallic ebb and flow. The production methodology may differ from that used to create Glisten, but there's a kindred unsettling character to Loops for Voerman that holds one's attention.January 2010