Article
2012 Artists' Picks

Albums
36
The Alvaret Ensemble
The Boats
Dadub
Day
Enduser / The Teknoist
Alejandro Franov
Christoph Funabashi
The Inventors Of Aircraft
Kostis Kilymis
krill.minima
Lau Nau
Madera Wind Quintet
Todd Matthews
Lubomyr Melnyk
okamononoriaki
The Outside Agency
Oyaarss
peterMann
Pleq + Philippe Lamy
Roach & Metcalf
SaffronKeira
Martin Schulte
Jay Shepheard
Tape Loop Orchestra
Techdiff
TM404
Yard

Compilations / Mixes
Darkroom Dubs Vol.3
Petre Inspirescu
Pop Ambient 2013
v-p v-f is v-n

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Alis
Arkaik
Babi
Bee Mask
Bungle
drcarlsonalbion
Fescal
Fluorescent Heights
William Ryan Fritch
Greyghost
Junction 12
Lind and Loraine
Alessan Main
Martinez
Mikal
Show Me The Future
10 Yrs hhv.de 45 Vol. 10
Wolf Cub

Pleq + Philippe Lamy: Momentum
dataObscura

Bartosz Dziadosz is prolific, to say the least. At Discogs, six Pleq full-lengths are listed for 2012 alone, though it should be said that all are either collaborations or split releases. One of the six finds Dziadosz pairing with Philippe Lamy, who was originally a visual artist but now a sound artist too. Evidence of that background is heard throughout Momentum in the degree of detail presented within its settings. The two favour dark ambient soundsculpting of an ultra-dense and evocative kind in their five long-form originals, which extend from eight to fourteen minutes in length. The release itself totals seventy-three minutes, seventeen of which are taken up by remixes of three tracks by Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt), mise_en_scene (Shay Nassi), and Yukitomo Hamasaki.

Field recordings, glitches, noises of indeterminate sounds, and even the vestige of a (mutated) musical instrument or two emerges in the duo's immersive, slow-motion sound-worlds. In keeping with its ominous title, “Behind the Black Horizon” oozes portent in the waves of creaks and rain-soaked noise that proliferate. Smothered in gloom, the duo's nightmarish material is less musical piece than visual scene-painting rendered in aural form. Cut from the same cloth, “Dropping Waves” evokes Edgar Allen Poe in the muffled screeches that drape themselves across the track's thick layers of grime and soot. Shimmering melodies can be glimpsed softly intoning beneath the crackling washes of noise “Momentum,” while “White Hole” offers the duo's most combustible set-piece of the five. They unfold with patience and deliberation and play like industrial, depopulated wastelands where natural elements appear to be trying to wrest control from the whirrs and clanks of broken machinery. The attention to detail is impressive, something that can best be appreciated by hearing the album loud or on headphones.

As far as the remixes are concerned, the mise_en_scene version of “Behind the Black Horizon” softens the original and transmutes it into a microsound exercise that's rather less gloom-laden and more placid, Machinefabriek's “Dropping Waves” version retains the creepiness of the original while also multiplying it its textural density with flickering noises and panning washes, and Yukitomo Hamasaki illuminates the “Absurd” original with bright pinging accents and vaporous washes.

February 2013