ARTIST...: Ros Bandt and LIME
TITLE....: Soft and Fragile
YEAR.....: 2022
LABEL....: Efficient Space
CAT.NO...: ES026
GENRE....: Ambient
TIME.....: 36:06
SIZE.....: 82.68 MB
QUALITY..: 320kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB
RLS.DATE.: 2022/03/30
WEBSITE..: https://rosbandt.bandcamp.com/album/soft-and-fragile
TRACKLIST
01) (17:45) Ros Bandt░-░Ocean Bells
02) (08:36) LIME░-░Shift
03) (09:45) LIME░-░Annapurna
Efficient Space presents Soft and Fragile by Ros Bandt and LIME (Live Improvised
Music Events), originally released by Move Records in 1983. A pioneering figure in
Australian music, Bandt is known for her work with sound sculpture, electronics,
acoustic ecology, and invented instruments, as well as her writings and teaching.
Soft and Fragile comprises a series of structured improvisations performed on
custom-built bells and gongs. On the side-long æOcean BellsÆ, Bandt performs on her
æflagongÆ, a three-tiered vertical glass marimba that she made in 1978, inspired by
the æcloud chamber bowlsÆ of maverick instrument builder and microtonal composer
Harry Partch. Over a long tape loop made up of slowed down sounds from the same
instrument, she delicately strikes the glass bells with mallets, allowing individual
pitches to ring out and decay with the aquatic wavering quality that suggested the
pieceÆs title, eventually building into flowing melodic sequences. Structured as a
series of events determined by the length of the performerÆs breath, this gently
undulating music invites listeners to lose themselves in delicate microtonal
fluctuations and subtle yet expressive phrasing.
For æShiftsÆ, Bandt is joined by Julie Doyle, Gavan McCarthy, and Carolyn Robb on a
collectively composed work for clay bells. Atop a steady pulse, melodic and rhythmic
cells expand and contract, shifting between LIMEÆs four members. LIME also perform
the closing æAnnapurnaÆ, where timbres sourced from glass, clay and metal are freely
threaded through a pulsating tape backdrop generated from loops of the ensemble
chanting.
Presented in a redesigned sleeve showcasing the performers and their instruments, the
reissue reproduces the extensive original liner notes. While BandtÆs ideas and
techniques draw on aspects of the invented instrument tradition of Partch and
Bertoia, StockhausenÆs intuitive music, and the cyclical structures of American
minimalism and Javanese gamelan, the floating world of Soft and Fragile also
resonates with the work of New Age outlier Stephan Micus and contemporary
practitioners such as Tomoko Sauvage. In BandtÆs own words, this is æelegant and
sensual music where the body and mind have the time to reflect and catch up with the
moment as it passesàIt is a music intended for respiteÆ.
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