Rating:
Genre:
Avant Garde
Release Date: 07/29/2008
Apsomeophone is not the follow-up you would expect to
David Brown's 2001
Candlesnuffer release. By all means a more disorienting album, it leaves more room to silence, opens up to a wider instrumentation, and challenges the listener on more levels than his solo debut. The booklet and tray card contain little information as to what is on the disc and how it was done.
Brown is credited as the sole performer, but no instruments are specified. Besides the guitars, which still account for the majority of the sounds heard, there are trombones, percussion, turntables, samples, and
electronics -- at least. With these sources,
Brown builds complex, very dynamic
electro-acoustic works. If
Candlesnuffer proceeded from the
noise scene,
Apsomeophone is clearly rooted in
musique concrète (as a form) and
rock (for the electric guitar).
"Were Holes Mended?" is the album's main course: ten minutes of fragmented sound events interspersed with silence. The piece is demanding on the listener, confusing and provocative. The seven shorter tracks that follow are denser, but still make use of a wide range of dynamics. They are also more immediately likable and, despite the complexity of their multiple layers, they project an image of careful organization.
"Satan Wash," "Money's Dark Night," and
"Voices of the Air Shaft 2" stand out as particularly clever and sonically rich. Fans of
Bucketrider will find here an album that both explains the rigors of the group's then-latest opus (
L'Événements) and dives deeper into abstraction. It requires a few listens before efforts can be rewarded, but it ultimately reveals an unusual composer. Fans of non-academic (or even academic)
electro-acoustic music are advised to keep an ear on this guy.
~François Couture, All Music Guide
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