textura

Albums
17 Pygmies
Ælab
Aeroc
Adrian Aniol
Aleph
Artificial Memory Trace
B. Schizophonic / Onodera
Blue Fields
The Boats
Canyons of Static
Celer
drog_A_tek
Fennesz + Sakamoto
Marcus Fischer
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Daniel Thomas Freeman
From the Mouth of the Sun
Goth-Trad
Karol Gwózdz
Mark Harris
Inverz
Kingbastard
Tatsuro Kojima
Robert Lippok
Maps and Diagrams
Merzouga
Message To Bears
mpld
The New Law
Nuojuva
Octave One
Petrels
Puresque
Refractor
Lasse-Marc Riek
Jim Rivers
Dennis Rollins
Scuba
Shigeto
Susurrus
Jason Urick
VVV
Williamette
Windy & Carl
Zomes

Compilations / Mixes
DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives
Future Disco Volume 5
King Deluxe Year One
Phonography Meeting
Pop Ambient 2012

EPs
Blixaboy
Matthew Dear
Fovea Hex
Jacksonville
Kurzwellen 0
Phasen
Pascal Savy

Lasse-Marc Riek: Saison Concrète
Semper Florens

Having listened to so many Gruenrekoder releases over the past couple of years, I automatically think of the label when I hear the name Lasse-Marc Riek, given that the Germany-born conceptual and sound artist is a founding member of the audio publishing company that since 2003 has issued all manner of splendid soundscapes, field recordings, and electro-acoustic recordings. But let's not forget that he's a music producer in his own right, with his Saison Concrète release (500 CD copies) on the Russian Semper Florens label a recent example of his work. He might just as naturally have released it on Gruenrekoder, given its field recordings-based concept and design.

It's an uninterrupted, forty-four-minute acoustic rendering of the four seasons, an entire year's array of sounds condensed into a single, detail-packed soundscape. The material follows its own idiosyncratic journey, becoming explosive and turbulent during one episode and restful and pacifying the next, with Riek including sounds both literally evocative of nature elements and others more abstract and open to interpretation. Sounds flow together with nary a moment separating them, resulting in a fluid travelogue of ever-changing character.

Many of the sounds are, of course, derived from acoustic field recordings designed to reinforce the seasonal theme of the recording. Human and non-human forms interact alongside sounds associated with natural and industrial phenomena, with all of it artfully arranged and sequenced and Riek careful to not overwhelm the listener with too much detail at any given moment—though the total effect is psychotropic and even, at times, dizzying. Encountered during the trip: rain drizzle and thunder, assorted scrapes and creaks, a downpour so huge and violent it suggests a tsunami, the aggressive cries of birds, crowds of people talking, bell tones resounding, music boxes and cowbells tinkling, insect swarms buzzing, sheep bleating and dogs whimpering, machines and vehicles rumbling and rattling, and church bells ringing. Saison Concrète is so encompassing, in fact, it could be used as a prototype for collage-based field recordings-based projects of its kind, as a primer to introduce listeners new to the sound art genre, for example.

February 2012