| |||||
 |
sonogram: heartbeat submarines (Simulacra - 1999) Rather than releasing heartbeat submarines under his previous moniker of Tear Ceremony, Todd Gautreau (interviewed Sept. '98) has reflected the changes in his sound with a new name... while sonogram's pieces may still reside within the dreamily twisted worlds Gautreau has forged previously, new structures have been erected there by way of very electronic, and still quite odd, workmanship. |
|
Whereas his previous works (Resin and Film Decay) were comprised of relatively soft, abstract forms, the tracks in heartbeat submarines build upon strips of that ground. These mutedly gleaming new constructions, while (sometimes) more overtly musical, are still yet assembled at unusual angles, in quasi-futuristic arrangements, with unusual shapes painted in unfamiliar colors.
The billowy drifts of dresden girls are decorated with bleebles and blurps, echoing voices, and tinny electric tunes. The clunky, pseudo-tribal beats and flutes which open has anyone seen cornelius stir up a pixelated image of some virtual veldt. The track transforms into a completely different landscape though, by way of long sustains, echoes and electronic overlays. An echoey pulse/drone pumps life into the concave heart, which is embellished with twinkly glitters of light and strands of bubbly notes. Multiple layers of old-computer-game-like electronic melodies are woven into barfly, sounding like impersonal, yet somehow warm, lounge-pop for robotic aliens. Electric tones droop and smear in assorted colors when following fiber-optic's twisting line. Bloops and sweeps intermix with prolonged buzzes and chimy tones. In a snapshot from a mechanistic void, seemingly empty space is filled with debris; humming machinery and effervescent burblies are joined by sparse xylotones, all to a nicely alienting effect. A melancholic sense of longing seems to infuse the spaceman's blues, a pretty, relatively "normal" piece consisting of a slowly chording organ, rolling waves of e-piano and a persistent, radar-like space bleep that keeps searching... searching... Various levels of blips convene briefly over an organ base in apparent microdots. Pulses and echoey chimes define the murky area known as previously magnetic, a more ambient atmosphere. Subtle textures are interspersed with quiet bells and metallic, musical clatters. A mutated, breathy vocal sample appears with the long organ chords which open the hatch to heartbeat submarines (10:09). A baby's cry precedes a change in pace, as a muted, jazzy chaos unfolds to eventually be overidden by lolling bubbles of bass, distant thunderings and flute sounds. Watery electronics ripple as the undersea journey continues through continually volatile fluids, finally depressurizing into silence... which fades into the dense, oscillating (and short-lived) drone of cadence (1:22). You can of course click your way to the sonogram sound files page at the Simulacra website if you'd like to preview with your own ears. |
| The moods within heartbeat submarines lean toward introspective; calming yet a bit edgy. While not as downright warped perhaps as his Tear Ceremony releases, these new additions still provide some very twisty passageways to tread through, leading to uncertain future destinations. If your mind is in need of touring some new and different sonic architecture, a 50-minute trip through sonogram's new 8.1 constructions will most assuredly lead you someplace you've not already been. |  |