Artist.......: Joe Grimm
Album........: Brain Cloud
Label........: Spekk
Genre........: Electronic
Catnr........: KK: 015
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Jan-23-2009
str.date.....: 000-00-0000
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: http://www.spekk.net/
track title time
01. Brain Cloud IV 10:51
02. Harpsichord 06:43
03. Brain Cloud I 19:31
04. Harpsichord 05:09
05. Brain Cloud III 15:18
Runtime 57:32 min
Size 77,0 MB
Release Notes:
Some of you may be familiar with Joe Grimm's work
as The Wind-Up Bird, although he's also been part
of some impressive collaborations, rubbing artistic
shoulders with the likes of Alvin Lucier, Glenn
Branca and Dirty Projectors among others. This new
album for Spekk finds Grimm drawing influence from
the aforementioned Branca, while also drawing from
the overtone-based experimentations of Charlemagne
Palestine and Ligeti's principles of
micropolyphony. By using masses of acoustic sound,
Grimm found he was able to conjure a desired pitch
from the overtones created by two or more other
pitches. Despite the ethereal, esoteric qualities
of this music, apparently no special effects or
electronic processing was involved. Instead, Brain
Cloud relies exclusively on the natural timbres of
violins, horns, piano and the human voice in the
pursuit of eliciting ghost tones, which make
themselves apparent from the nebulous sustain
accompanying the more familiar harmonics of the
instruments in use at a particular time. The three
main Brain Cloud pieces are broken up by two
harpsichord-based solo improvisations. Here an
equalizer and a short delay help to break the
instrument out of the timbral conventions we might
associate with it, but these should be considered
interludes between the more substantial
compositions elsewhere. This album might not sound
like a whole lot of fun, and certainly Brain Cloud
is characterised by an austere experimentalism, but
the results of this methodical, disciplined
approach are eerily beautiful in their own bizarre
way, and followers of the less traditional schools
of 20th century modern composition will find much
to absorb in Grimm's work. Highly Recommended.