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Paula Matthusen: Between Systems and Grounds
ByWrapped your head around that, yet? What possible use could a recording of these procedures have for the average listener? Could the result be anything more than a curiosity piece? It doesn't ease one's skepticism to discover that the album will only be available as a download andhipster alertas a cassette (vinyl apparently being too mainstreamor, to be fair, too expensiveto produce). One might dream of meeting some twenty-something from Brooklyn cranking Between Systems and Grounds on his (or her) dashboard tape-deckor is that a nightmare?
And yet, despite all these layers of artiness, the recording itself is surprisingly accessible, a kind of ambient soundtrack for an atmospheric horror movie. No tunes to hum here, just odd, recessed, little sonic events layered on top of drones that sustain tension without cranking the intensity past simmer. Great stuff to reador writea scary story to, or just the thing to play in the background of the next family Thanksgiving gathering if you'd like to make it a dollop more uncanny than usual. Indeed, it's not bad stuff to stick on the background when your brain wants a little tickle of dread now and then while it focuses the rest of its attention elsewhere. It's not terribly different from Brian Eno's excursions in the genre, just with events in the backgroundcrickets, thunderstorms, frogs, birdsthat give the proceedings more narrative impetus.
No way around itthis is music for use, not something most listeners will find satisfying played in the foreground. But music for use has its place, and who could resist adding where one of the two musicians plays "textiles"?
Track Listing
Real Time Insects Summer Breeze Bobbins; Time Compressed Bobbins; Real Time Insects Summer Breeze; Time Compressed Wind Insects Robbins; Real Time Thunderstorm Bobbins; Time Compressed Thunderstorm Bobbins; Real Time Insects Birds Bobbins; Real Time Electric Fence Insects Bobbins; Time Compressed Frogs Bobbins; Time Compressed Silo Birds Bobbins Feedback.
Personnel
Paula Matthusen: electronics; Olivia Valentine: textiles.
Album information
Title: Between Systems and Grounds | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: CARRIER RECORDS
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