Articles
Ten Questions Eric Quach
Ten Questions :papercutz

Albums
17 Pygmies
Alex B
Alva Noto
Antonymes
Aubry & Montavon
Bonobo
B-Sanders
Martin Buttrich
Ken Camden
Mlle Caro & Garcia
cecilia::eyes
Mathias Delplanque
DMT
d_rradio & Lianne Hall
Drape
Elektro Guzzi
Roman Flügel
Pierre Gerard / Shinkei
Ghost of 29 Megacycles
Tord Gustavsen
Ian Hawgood
Hrdvsion
Ikonika
Indignant Senility
Kingbastard
Loveliescrushing
Lunar Miasma
peterMann
MONO
Ontayso
:papercutz
Pausal
Pjusk
Jonas Reinhardt
Pascal Savy
Thorsten Scheerer
Scuba
Semuin
Sonmi451
Stray Ghost
Nicholas Szczepanik
Thisquietarmy
The Timewriter
Vex'd
Christian Wallumrød

Compilations / Mixes
Duskscape Not Seen

EPs
Orlando B.
Mlle Caro & Garcia
Kirk Degiorgio
Russ Gabriel
Kyle Hall
Junkie Sartre & Hexaquart
Lena
Mike Monday
Adam Pacione
Colin Andrew Sheffield
Shinkei / mise_en_scene
Rick Wade
When The Clouds

Pascal Savy: The Silent Watcher
Audiomoves

The Silent Watcher presents seven heavily textured, atmospheric settings by electronic music composer Pascal Savy. For his first full-length album, the London, UK-based producer worked with field recordings of workshop tools, clock devices, rusty bicycle wheels, children's voices, and so forth (in their unaltered and processed forms) to create miniature sound narratives of evocative character. Using granular synthesis techniques, Savy manipulates the source materials so that a hint of their originating identity sometimes remains but also to such a degree that the materials assume an abstract and open-ended character—much like an image that's so out-of-focus only glimmers of its outlines remain. Fragments of keyboard melodies, for example, ripple across whispering drones in “Deconstructing Clues” while a human's distant cry intermittently surfaces. A percolating beat pattern quietly pulsates throughout “Asleep” as if to mimic sleep's regulated brain activity, while minimal piano notes punctuate wavering swirls of choral-like drift. Though there's a restless pitter-patter of warm keyboard tones, echoing ripples, and other noises cascading across the smooth surfaces of “Oblique,” the piece largely sticks close to its evenly modulated core. A darker undercurrent threading through “Muon” lends it a subtly menacing ambiance, an impression bolstered by the sounds of nocturnal creatures chattering amidst the percussive clatter and churn of industrial machinery. Savy's pieces are nominally ambient, though not so much that they blend into the background like so much wallpaper. Though there are melodic elements, he renders their outlines fuzzy too so that the melodies are broken up, muffled, and muted, as if heard through a semi-transparent scrim. The resultant pieces are artful and nuanced, not to mention admirably understated—so much so, in fact, that close listening is needed for the high quality of the material to be fully appreciated.

May 2010