z'ev, John Duncan, Aidan Baker and Fear Falls Burning

This four-way split from Die Stadt is a treat. It is a double 7” with a gorgeous sleeve featuring some wonderful experimental and minimalist pieces from four top-notch sound artists. Lucky early birds who get one of the first 300 copies also get a double CD of material from the same artists. Packaged in a lovely textured sleeve, the entire collection both looks and sounds dreamy.

Die Stadt
 
On the first 7”, the track from z’ev looks to the early stages of his career. “Elementonal” is a combination of two live performances from the early '80s, the rhythm being from the Atonal Festival in 1983 and metal percussion (I suppose you’d call it lead percussion) from a 1981 San Francisco show. Combined, the two recordings make a powerful junkyard piece, more chaotic and tempestuous than his contemporary performances. John Duncan’s contribution, however, is far harsher than the rest of the material. “OFFFFFFFF” is pure noise, sounding like roadworks being broadcasted over longwave radio. It is like being hit by the lightning that z’ev was brewing up on the flipside.

My favorite from the entire collection is the excerpt from Aidan Baker’s “Drone Four” on the second 7" single. There is a gentle warmth in the waves of sound.  The drones come together to make an oceanic atmosphere. It feels that at any moment a lumbering undersea behemoth will float silently past as you are pushed away in its wake. The final piece from the vinyl is an excerpt from “The Beautiful Decline” by Fear Falls Burning. It’s superficially similar to the Baker piece but doesn’t have the same depth. It’s hard to get lost in the drones. The sleeve notes make a big deal about it being performed in real time with no overdubs but anyone with a guitar and a couple of delay pedals could do something like this.

The CDs are based on a simple concept: let the four artists remix each other (or modify or recycle, I can never remember the proper mot du jour). z’ev processes a two minute recording of Duncan’s into a 20 minute glitchy ambience: it doesn’t work as well as the other remixes. Duncan’s remix of Z’ev’s material sounds a lot like his own piece on the vinyl but slower. It is interesting enough but this disc is dull compared to the other CD and the vinyl. The second CD is better. Fear Falls Burning don’t add anything significant to Baker’s “Drone Four,” but it is a much more satisfying 37 minutes and there are nice little bumps and noises in the background that change the mood of the piece ever so slightly into something more unsettling. Baker fleshes out “The Beautiful Decline” into two more substantial works, making the sound richer and more vibrant. Ironically it sounds less like a pale imitation of Baker’s own original work once he fiddles with it.

These various discs add up to a rewarding and fulfilling experience. The different approaches each artist takes to sculpturing sounds into different shapes and characters are reinforced by each other’s contributions. Barring a couple of stumbles there is a lot of material here that is worth sitting down and analyzing bit by bit.

samples:

• John Duncan - bkg
• Fear Falls Burning - Drone Four
• Aidan Baker - The Beautiful Declined (Declined Mix)