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Stephan Mathieu and Taylor Deupree, "Transcriptions"
While both these artists are known for their work with the purely synthetic world of sound, here both add more traditional and organic instrumentation to their sound, and the result is a warm and melodic set of tracks that occasionally allow in a bit of dissonance.
Like much of Deupree’s work, there is an overwhelming amount of inviting sustained tones throughout Transcriptions.In fact, they make up the bulk of the opening "Nocturne," along with reverberated loops and guitar, which one of the decidedly organic elements to this album.The second track, "Largo," drops some of the processing for cleaner, glassy tones, but also brings in raw vinyl surface noise, either from 78rpm records or old wax cylinders that Mathieu brings to the table.The audio dirt from these old sources is a stark but welcome contrast to the otherwise pure and sterile nature of the sound.
Both "Solitude" and "Remain" amplify the more harsh elements of the duo’s sound, though it still is rather hushed by most standards.The former has soft, filtered white noise as a bed that reverberated music box tones from the farthest reaches of infinity soar over, and the latter uses gauzy static against soft melody, though sadly the static is not as prominent as it should be, in my opinion."Andante" boosts up the lower registered sounds and adds in some vaguely rhythmic loops to break up the pure tone.
"Genius" follows suit, but guitar is more of a prominent feature here, and so are the loops.In general, it has a more dynamic, varied feel to it compared to the other tracks’ more looming, frozen nature.The long "White Heaven" is aptly named:it is a mostly static track of soaring melodies and subtle variations in sound, but mixes the melody with subtle noise, which is stripped away towards the end to leave only the pure melody.
In total it is a pleasant tonal listening experience with some good textural elements to the sound, but it doesn’t stand out as anything especially innovative or new from either artist, and thus is more just another notch in the discography as opposed to a new revelation or career development.It’s good, but not great.
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