 |
|
GROWING/MARK EVAN BURDEN, "FIRMAMENT/10.24.02"
Growing had the good fortune of releasing their album The Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Lightlast year in the midst of an underground scene that had lately becomeobsessed on the low-end doom-laden guitar drones proffered by bandslike Sunn O))), Earth, and Birchville Cat Motel. Growing's album wasunfairly lumped into this loose grouping of artists, which theassociation with producer Rex Ritter (of Fontanelle/Jessamine and SunnO))) involvements) didn't really help.
Zum
To my ears, Growing share littleor nothing in common with the aforementioned acts. Their brand of droneis clean and polished, harmonically precise, thick, substantial andevocative; not noisy, chaotic or unstructured, and not matched withpseudo-metal aesthetic trappings. It shares much more in common withcertain avant-garde explorers of the drone (LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad,Terry Riley), or even a bit like Nurse With Wound's elegiac dronemasterpiece Soliloquy for Lilith. This long-delayed split CDdrives home my point. Growing's contribution, a 19-minute pieceentitled "Firmament," is not doom-y, funereal, earthbound or dirge-y inthe slightest; it's a hypnotically beautiful ambient work combiningguitar and bass harmonics with limited electronic elements formulatedto lift the listener into a heavenly firmament of clouds. The slow,unfocused drones buzz, vibrate and harmonize at unexpected moments tosuggest a kind of lazy melody, slowly smearing out cumulonimbus cloudson the crystal blue horizon. The technical precision with which Growingrecord and produce their music is stunning; at high volumes played onspeakers, the piece takes on quadraphonic qualities, as the lowerfrequencies vibrate random items in the room, creating another level ofphysical immersion. Sharing this disc with Growing is a solo piece fromMark Evan Burden, who some may know from his involvement in Get Hustleand Glass Candy, or his solo work as Silentist. His piece "10.24.02" isan avant-garde compositional piece for piano, percussion andelectronics. The press notes compare this piece to Cage, Ligeti andConlon Nancarrow, none of which I'm terribly familiar with, so I amwithout a real reference point for this music. For thenon-academically-minded such as myself, the piece still holds a lot ofinterest, with an intense, energetic performance by Burden on piano,locking himself into complex grooves which grow in complexity with eachrepetition as treble-heavy electronic tones bubble up and take over theforeground. The piece slowly develops over its 15-minute length,traveling through several movements, increasing echo and reverb untilthe piano blends together with the electronics in a nebulous andsuggestive tangle. Though avant-garde piano composition is not usuallya big turn-on for me, I really enjoyed this piece immensely.
Zum
To my ears, Growing share littleor nothing in common with the aforementioned acts. Their brand of droneis clean and polished, harmonically precise, thick, substantial andevocative; not noisy, chaotic or unstructured, and not matched withpseudo-metal aesthetic trappings. It shares much more in common withcertain avant-garde explorers of the drone (LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad,Terry Riley), or even a bit like Nurse With Wound's elegiac dronemasterpiece Soliloquy for Lilith. This long-delayed split CDdrives home my point. Growing's contribution, a 19-minute pieceentitled "Firmament," is not doom-y, funereal, earthbound or dirge-y inthe slightest; it's a hypnotically beautiful ambient work combiningguitar and bass harmonics with limited electronic elements formulatedto lift the listener into a heavenly firmament of clouds. The slow,unfocused drones buzz, vibrate and harmonize at unexpected moments tosuggest a kind of lazy melody, slowly smearing out cumulonimbus cloudson the crystal blue horizon. The technical precision with which Growingrecord and produce their music is stunning; at high volumes played onspeakers, the piece takes on quadraphonic qualities, as the lowerfrequencies vibrate random items in the room, creating another level ofphysical immersion. Sharing this disc with Growing is a solo piece fromMark Evan Burden, who some may know from his involvement in Get Hustleand Glass Candy, or his solo work as Silentist. His piece "10.24.02" isan avant-garde compositional piece for piano, percussion andelectronics. The press notes compare this piece to Cage, Ligeti andConlon Nancarrow, none of which I'm terribly familiar with, so I amwithout a real reference point for this music. For thenon-academically-minded such as myself, the piece still holds a lot ofinterest, with an intense, energetic performance by Burden on piano,locking himself into complex grooves which grow in complexity with eachrepetition as treble-heavy electronic tones bubble up and take over theforeground. The piece slowly develops over its 15-minute length,traveling through several movements, increasing echo and reverb untilthe piano blends together with the electronics in a nebulous andsuggestive tangle. Though avant-garde piano composition is not usuallya big turn-on for me, I really enjoyed this piece immensely.samples:
