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Gal, "Relisten"
Another limited-edition release from Intransitive Recordings, this is acollection of six pieces by Viennese artist Bernhard Gal, each createdfrom Gal's own field recordings.
The pieces are all pretty varied, andwith the exception of the first piece, "It's Like...," an irritatingpastiche of American idiom and slang voiced by Mandy Morrison, they areall highly intriguing listens. Two of the pieces are based around thesounds of public transportation: "57A" layers sounds of a train and aconductor in Vienna, and "68th Street" layers turnstiles and subwaystation sounds from New York. In both of these pieces, Gal processesthe recordings just enough to make it apparent that he's manipulatingthem, without covering up the sounds themselves. An unintrusive highpitched drone pervades through "68th Street," giving it an eerienessthat might be familiar to some MTA riders. "Tong-hua Yie-shi" is theonly non-manipulated piece on the disc, a straight field recording thatGal made walking through a Taiwanese market. There are an incrediblenumber of stereos blaring in the market, but Gal's mic is sufficientlydirectional that as he walks, he picks up each song, from theBackstreet Boys to the strangest Taiwanese pop, with the clarity ofchanging the dial on a radio. The most interesting sounds on the disc,though, happen when Gal lets himself completely process the fieldrecordings until he renders them virtually unrecognizable. "Bee Bee" is"based on the humming of the Brooklyn Bridge." It's hard to tell whatthis means or what sounds he took from the bridge - passing cars,maybe? - but he creates a 15 minute ghostly, ambient crescendo thatexpands itself not unlike Ligeti's famous 'Requiem' from the movie 2001(It's interesting but probably unintentional that the two pieces basedin New York have such dark moods). "lv, nv" is the golden track on thedisc: "The sound of money and slot machines as acoustical ghosts of acasino in Las Vegas." The sounds of the casino are barely existent inthis piece, replaced by their own processed resonations. It's hard tobelieve that sounds this relaxing and pleasant can be created from thechaotic din of a gambling house. What really makes the disc as a wholesuch an incredible piece of work is that it's clear from the brief butinformative liner notes that Gal is excited by the naturally occurringworld of sound and music: "The personal discovery of music withinnature as well as within the routines of everyday life keepsfascinating me." His fascination can be infectious, and if you allowyourself to get caught up in Gal's world-as-music, the CD becomes anengaging series of small sonic journeys.
The pieces are all pretty varied, andwith the exception of the first piece, "It's Like...," an irritatingpastiche of American idiom and slang voiced by Mandy Morrison, they areall highly intriguing listens. Two of the pieces are based around thesounds of public transportation: "57A" layers sounds of a train and aconductor in Vienna, and "68th Street" layers turnstiles and subwaystation sounds from New York. In both of these pieces, Gal processesthe recordings just enough to make it apparent that he's manipulatingthem, without covering up the sounds themselves. An unintrusive highpitched drone pervades through "68th Street," giving it an eerienessthat might be familiar to some MTA riders. "Tong-hua Yie-shi" is theonly non-manipulated piece on the disc, a straight field recording thatGal made walking through a Taiwanese market. There are an incrediblenumber of stereos blaring in the market, but Gal's mic is sufficientlydirectional that as he walks, he picks up each song, from theBackstreet Boys to the strangest Taiwanese pop, with the clarity ofchanging the dial on a radio. The most interesting sounds on the disc,though, happen when Gal lets himself completely process the fieldrecordings until he renders them virtually unrecognizable. "Bee Bee" is"based on the humming of the Brooklyn Bridge." It's hard to tell whatthis means or what sounds he took from the bridge - passing cars,maybe? - but he creates a 15 minute ghostly, ambient crescendo thatexpands itself not unlike Ligeti's famous 'Requiem' from the movie 2001(It's interesting but probably unintentional that the two pieces basedin New York have such dark moods). "lv, nv" is the golden track on thedisc: "The sound of money and slot machines as acoustical ghosts of acasino in Las Vegas." The sounds of the casino are barely existent inthis piece, replaced by their own processed resonations. It's hard tobelieve that sounds this relaxing and pleasant can be created from thechaotic din of a gambling house. What really makes the disc as a wholesuch an incredible piece of work is that it's clear from the brief butinformative liner notes that Gal is excited by the naturally occurringworld of sound and music: "The personal discovery of music withinnature as well as within the routines of everyday life keepsfascinating me." His fascination can be infectious, and if you allowyourself to get caught up in Gal's world-as-music, the CD becomes anengaging series of small sonic journeys.
