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Philip Samartzis: Residue (Dorobo - 1998) Anticipate the unpredictable as Philip Samartzis maps out a mysterious travelogue through impossible, everchanging soundworlds, in this Dorobo Limited Edition Release. While it may consist of only two tracks, this disc is completely filled with bizarrely evolving electroacoustic Residue. |
| Sparse and (generally) quiet interjections of sound make up our journey through the Dark Woods (26:00). Female singing gives way to a thunderous boom which leads to odd, blaring scritchies which fade into a variety of subdued mechanistic patterns, which make room for a truly ear-wrenching sample of something (?) being completely twisted. Variously panning echoey rumbles, mechanical clatters, metallic clinks, muffled conversations, birdie chirps, a cappella song, wind and waves, iron creakings, harmonica blares, distorted electronics, low power drones, distant footsteps all appear and disappear... and that's only in the first 15 minutes. The travel usually flows smoothly, but not always; quiet buzzings reside next to torrential blasts which are immediately situated with soft patterings like tiny wind-up toys. Some transitions are almost imperceptibly feathered, while others are obvious cuts. The final leg takes the listener through some new territory, including showers of resonant cymbals, then finally returns to a woman's familiar tune.
Foreboding winds make entry into the Heart of France (48:44) seem a perilous undertaking. The track, though presented as a continuous piece, is broken into two parts which were recorded at different times and places. The first is Bourges, definitely a louder track. Faraway bells toll in those ominous breezes, and an unidentifiable smoldering builds and boils, dangerously close, when... RATATATATATATATA!, an out-of-control metronome segues into an ear-piercingly shrill drone and background pulse... these three elements interplay, fade and return. The next threatening sound source is a buzzing, crystalline surge of elecricity, followed by another uncomfortably sharp and sustained blare from which a swirling entity of dark beauty seems to flow... then it's back to the cystalline power surge and a high-pitched wavering with its own raucous backlash, which eventually quietens to a ringing drone... and we're only 10 minutes into this outing! Plenty more sonic disurbances await in this zone, like odd clunks and thumps, solemn bells, dribbly waterfalls, more energetic mechanical pulsations, and even a frenzied outburst of cathedral organ-playing. The mood remains unsettled because the sounds are so unpredictable, sometimes unrecognizable, but always listenable even when they're almost unlistenable. Such unexpectations are most welcome! The track abruptly cuts into Hérimoncourt with its powerful shimmers and ghostly whispers. A hollow keening and crackling rumble swell and pulsate, fading to a quiet though distantly active atmosphere... strange cries occasionally pierce the disquieting lull. Truly weird muffled "skronks" forcibly intrude (sounds like someone rubbing balloons perhaps, but scarier). Dinner party sounds gradually fade in, and someone's playing billiards, but then it's down a pocket and into a dark, clattery place where eventually remote electronic music can be heard and we're drawn toward that source, along with a sharply oscillating alarm and monstrous respirations... maybe this isn't a good place to be... whoosh... we've broken through to somewhere else, strange but not so dangerous... perhaps. Much quieter, though wetly organic sounds seem emanate here, brewing for some time, until with a brief fanfare of snare, the sound location sharply alters again. I won't give it all away; just know that you can't know where you're finally heading, even after hearing it yourself!
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| Almost 75 minutes of Philip Samartzis' warped electroacoustic constructions may prove too heavy for some folks; but for those who find music in everyday (as well as impossible) sounds, Residue will pull you into an extraordinary intermingling of the ordinary and the fantastic, a moodily disorienting, but clearly evocative sonic trip. I won't be playing this at any parties, but am interested enough to bestow a 7.9 for artistry in sound exploration (and a totally freaked-out trip, to boot). |  |