a r t i s t : Lawrence English
t i t l e : For Varying Degrees Of Winter
d a t e : 2007
l a b e l : Baskaru (karu:7)
g e n r e : Ambient
r l s. d a t e : February/2007
t r a c k s : 06
b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
s i z e : 53,5 MB
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Room40 curator Lawrence English gets round to tackling that
subject close to the hearts of so many microsound composers -
winter. Whether it be Taylor Deupree or Bernhard Gunter,
winter seems to be perennial in the world of the minimalist
electronic musician. It's perhaps understandable that a genre
so preoccupied with static drones and tiny granular textures
should find some sort of resonance in the pristine
absoluteness of snow and ice, natural elements whose true
complexity and beauty are only revealed through microscopic
inspection. On "End Game", English uses all the tricks of his
trade to establish a sense of frozen soundscape, which manages
to be at once brittle and austere yet gently harmonious at the
same time. "Fleck" is even lighter & weightless in places; a
thin veil of upper-register sound design. Next up, "Desert
Road" marks a change of tone, with some altogether darker,
greyer drones sounding stark and still. The Thomas Koner-style
fog ambience of "Swan" increases the frequency bandwidth yet
further with its nebulous, impermeable crackle and washed-out
drone. As the album moves into its final third, the
infinitesimal shimmer and fine digital grain of "Soft Touch"
sounds like it might actually be a direct tribute to the
aforementioned Bernhard Gunter's seminal Un Peu De Neige De
Salie album: by the piece's conclusion, it becomes a finely
spun web of high frequency luster and minuscule detail.
English has delivered what might well be his best yet with For
Varying Degrees of Winter. It's an album of tremendous
delicacy yet formidable beauty. Highly recommended.
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01-End Game [07:15]
02-Fleck [06:10]
03-Desert Road [06:58]
04-Swan [06:36]
05-Soft Touch [05:48]
06-Unsettled Sleep [06:50]
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39:37 min