Steve Roden: Forms of Paper Steve Roden: Forms of Paper (Line - 2001) Bibliophiles take note, Steve Roden's extended panorama is sourced entirely by the sounds of book pages being handled... really! This 54-minute track is an expansion of his original LA Public Library Installation (must be a pretty cool library!). Forms of Paper's quietly enigmatic textures are certainly appropriate for the always understated Line label! Don't expect obvious page-flipping or cover-thumping noises... the book sounds have been thoroughly transmuted within Roden's computer. Decidedly unfamiliar soundforms unfurl in one longform excursion... thrumming energies, scritchy bumps, wavering murkiness, tiny pips, grittily grinding glass noises, the occasional "shhh" of a librarian (just kidding about the last one!). Frankly it's baffling as to how these strange emissions could have come from paper; it's more like an electron microscope scan of a page's surface, which of course isn't even remotely as smooth as it appears... About 35 minutes in, more vaporous currents begin to stream in high ephemeral drones, as semirhythmic patterns clunk along like distantly clopping hooves. All fades several minutes before the piece actually ends. Steve Roden 's Forms of Paper is one of those artistic endeavors that, for me anyway, works better in theory than practice. It's an interestingly deformative project, and I always like a cohesive theme, but the resulting soundscenes had me less than transfixed, fine experiments though they are. An 8.3 of appreciation, but I can't call it the audio equivalent of a "real page-turner". See the Line site for more. This review posted December 5, 2001 AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).