▄▄ [ INFORMATION ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ ARTIST: Wil Bolton █
█ TITLE: Quarry Bank █
█ LABEL: Time Released Sound █
█ GENRE: Ambient █
█ BITRATE: 243kbps avg █
█ PLAYTIME: 0h 47min total █
█ RELEASE DATE: 2011-00-00 █
█ RIP DATE: 2012-02-08 █
█ URL: █
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▄▄ [ TRACKLIST ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
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█ 01. Quarry Bank 4:44 █
█ 02. Water Frame 9:48 █
█ 03. A Black Mist 6:42 █
█ 04. Jacquard 6:22 █
█ 05. Calico 4:44 █
█ 06. The Long Decline 10:26 █
█ 07. Moss & Rust 4:40 █
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▄▄ [ NOTES ] ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
█ █
█ Review from FluidRadio: █
█ █
█ Women pouring through an open doorway, most seemingly in a hurry. One █
█ pauses, clutching a satchel, until a large skinny dog appears and barks █
█ at her, causing her to flee. The dog is chased away by a man on a █
█ bicycle. The second man to appear in the steady stream of frocks also █
█ has a bicycle; a third waves his handkerchief frantically as if to rid █
█ himself of a bothersome fly or wasp. The dog saunters by once more, as █
█ behind the last few stragglers two horses appear pulling a carriage. █
█ █
█ Perhaps a few of the departing workers would have had their curiosity █
█ aroused by the smallish black box the factory proprietors had set up █
█ opposite the entrance û ôwhat new toy are they conjuring up now?ö û █
█ though they could hardly have guessed at what was taking place. They █
█ knew that it was late afternoon, maybe just after five, on a workday, █
█ and that for them meant home time. But the little black box was busy █
█ transforming this time into an altogether different temporal form, the █
█ rules of which were radically different from anything that had so far █
█ been discerned or articulated by anyone, including the maverick █
█ inventors themselves. A perfectly normal everyday occurrence û that of █
█ workers leaving the LumiΦre factory on the outskirts of Lyon in 1895 û █
█ was being transposed from the time of the phenomenon to that of the █
█ cinema. █
█ █
█ It could be argued that a similar transposition occurs in all ambient █
█ and drone music, but the effect seems particularly pronounced in the █
█ work of Wil Bolton. It is fitting, then, to find him inside what could █
█ be thought of as a giant version of the LumiΦre BrothersÆ camera: the █
█ Quarry Bank mill in Cheshire, now a museum. The mill has been repaired █
█ and refurbished in order to return it to its appearance as it was in the █
█ nineteenth century, when it was one of the largest cotton mills in the █
█ United Kingdom. The mill is thus preserved within cinematic time, an █
█ amber that never properly sets, but forever repeats. Bolton recorded the █
█ sounds of the millÆs antique machinery and water wheels, and used their █
█ creaking, clanking and gushing as the basis for dense, dreamlike drones. █
█ Dreamlike in the sense of disorientating, hazy, possessing a weight and █
█ a heaviness yet not quite resolving into anything solid. The resulting █
█ music, like the mill itself and the stream of homebound workers, seems █
█ to exist inside a different kind of time, one that on the one hand never █
█ stops moving, yet on the other seems congealed into a single affective █
█ moment. I found it very difficult to work out how much time had passed █
█ as I was listening to ôQuarry Bankö û it could have been a whole day, a █
█ year, a second, or no time at all. █
█ █
█ Given all these transpositions of time, it is perfectly fitting that █
█ this music should appear on Time Released Sound: the label is renowned █
█ for its lovingly handcrafted packaging that recalls the Arts and Crafts █
█ Movement, an aesthetics and ideology that gained popularity during █
█ Quarry BankÆs heyday. ôQuarry Bankö is a sensitive and absorbing █
█ investigation into the persistence of moments in time, bewilderingly █
█ beautiful in the way it disrupts empirical concepts of temporality, just █
█ as the masterpieces of early cinema do. Rather than reassuring the █
█ listener with a slice of safe nostalgia, Bolton demonstrates █
█ experimental musicÆs ability to alter and unsettle our perceptions, █
█ opening up new possibilities for the imagination. █
█ █
█ - Nathan Thomas for Fluid Radio █
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