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Ayers, Grief, Storey: Oedipus Brain Foil (Soleilmoon Recordings - 1998) Three veteran sound artists have joined forces on this collaborative three-disc boxed set. The only thing geometrically precise about this set is the double-triangular formation that the three artists formed when they began trading sounds with each other. Everything else tends to be shapeless and dappled with odd sonic textures, colors and moods... it's abstract art for the ears. |
| Nigel Ayers, Randy Greif and Robin Storey (see this month's three-way interview for the inside scoop) created the complex whole of Oedipus Brain Foil by pieces. Each artist gathered his own sound sources to pass onto the second, while receiving sources to alter from the third, with the goal of reaching a communal voice from the three individual styles. I have to say the experiment was a success, but must add that, with all artists drawing from a history of truly eclectic stylings, this won't be everyone's cup of tea. But those who are inclined toward amorphous, evolving sound entities with a freakish life of their own will find a strange new world within this box of twisted dreamscapes.
The discs were a collaboration on many levels, inlcuding the package design. Storey contributed the cover paintings for each CD; random splats, smears and indeterminate weathering transfuse with an underlying work, becoming a distorted culmination of processes which is particularly apt to visually represent these works. The tracks themselves have a very "visual" sense about them that will no doubt vary from listener to listener, and indeed from listen to listen. With this in mind, I'll only give a brief impression of the surface of each track... Disc one is Nail of Pious Bride (63:32) wherein Robin Storey applies his touch to Randy Greif's source material. Rapoon fans shouldn't be disappointed, as the looping drones heard within these tracks definitely seem to echo Storey's solo work. Indefinite Eye exists as a sweltering murk, tiny echoes and blips emanate from this dense hovering cloud of sound. Nothing big "happens" here, it's the tiny fluctuations that keep it interesting. Muffled voices can almost be heard bubbling up from within the resonant drone of the Seven Day Galaxy. Upon close inspection, a lot is going on inside, including synth patterns and tinkling adornments. Mutated voices open Delta Dome where straining ethnic flutes blow over a foggy background consisting of a gigantic orchestral tuning-up sound mixed with a continual trance-inducing thrum. Dark Blue Automatic (6:30) swirls slowly with occasional shamanistic mutterings and faint tribal drum patterns emerging from the slowly oozing vortex. Another drone-based piece, the ebbing and flowing (but always-humming) atmosphere within This Impossible Room (21:26) is pierced by random, clattery outbursts and shimmering passages amongst other aberrations in its flow. Disc two, Perfidious Albion (60:01) was the result of Robin Nigel Ayers (of Nocturnal Emissions) reworking Robin Storey's source sounds. The pounding, yet soft, machine-like rhythm of Spiritually Appraising Things pumps underneath a haze of tweedling bagpipe-like sounds. In Moot Toot (2:11), it's nothing but exuberant tweedling, though from a flute this time. Anticipating Retaliatory Measures features a flailing patter of sound which grow more and more rumbly as the track evolves. As if through a fog, other almost musical sounds emerge occasionally. From a hushed beginning, Out!...... Vainglorious Priests presents a distant organ and a gradual, trainlike rumbling rhythm. A deep electric oscillation leads the way to Praising Dead Chieftans (15:24); eventually the air quietens and is visited upon by shimmery presences, then becomes totally engulfed in chaos. Comparatively light and perky, Wraiths and Eidolons proceeds on a spritely rhythmic pattern, and almost imperceptible voice and lilting organ. Opening on feedback-like squeals and diffused horn blares, Trafficking with Demons is a free-form drift through dark, foggy waters. To my ears, a most lonely piece. Beneath a churning cloudbank, Let Loose the Dogs grumbles rhythmically with scattered vaguely mechanical patterns and drones. It all begins to fizzle at the end, dispersing like a fading vision. Nigel Ayers presented his material to Randy Grief and disc three, Build A Poison Fire (57:03) came to be. Morphogen pulses and rings with sharply splintered bell sounds although the track gets very quiet towards its close. Stochastic Motion is obtained by staccato organ blasts and deep bass thrums, which don't dissipate untiil the very end... Bells again seem to hinted at though it's really hard to tell; in Algorithmics (10:48) a shimmery cyclical pattern phases in and out. The trick is to spot the subtle differences, and in the last 45 seconds or so, the track changes into a completely different creature. String-like spurts of sound are heard in Cellular Automata (4:46), which moves forward stumblingly, draped in a gauze of higher pitches. The beautiful, though somehow off-kilter Consolation Time pulses with rippling notes and a delicate background shimmer, gradually speeding up as the piece evolves. Brassy waves roll through Hyperbolic Umbilic, another morphic meandering, decorated with cinematic touches, or at least some noisy clunking around. The never-ending two-note cycle of Paradoxicon is just a little too repetitive for my tastes, the only track of 20 that just does not work for me... |
| Oedipus Brain Foil is an impressive endeavor, a truly experimental work that obviously does not pander to any preconceived notions of what is (or isn't) music. For the collaborational spirit of three top-notch experimentalists, as well as for the shape-shifting sounds within, I find it fascinating and chalk up an 8.7 in esteem for the project. Visit Soleilmoon to learn more about this and many other astounding sounds from the more experimental side of the ambient spectrum. |  |