The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Thanos Chrysakis/Wade Matthews/Dario Bernal-Villegas 
  Parallaxis
  (Aural Terrains) 


  
   review by Brian Olewnick
  2011-07-25
Thanos Chrysakis/Wade Matthews/Dario Bernal-Villegas: Parallaxis (Aural Terrains)

In his liner notes to this release, Wade Matthews offers a brief history of freely improvised music, especially as it relates to ideas in the visual arts, eventually centering on the notion of parallax, "the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer.", relating this both to musician and listener and the numerous angles from which one can both create and appreciate this are of music.

Well put if not entirely novel but the more immediate question is: does the music at hand have the richness and complex naturalness to afford such views and maintain interest? By and large, happily, yes. Chrysakis (laptop, electronics), Matthews (digital synthesis, field recordings) and Bernal-Villegas (percussion) construct six pieces that tingle the ears and convincingly render a fairly unique sonic world. The percussion really glues things together, Bernal-Villegas wielding a vast but generally light palette, usually forming a pervasive but subtle base through which the electronicists weave sparse but liquid patterns, recorded sounds seeming artificial and synthesized ones natural, sometimes pastoral with a dark edge, on other occasions cheerily industrial. It meanders here and there, yes, and sometimes gets a bit loopy and bloopy, but by disc's end, the trio has established itself as a moving, breathing force in space and when they let off a bit of steam in the final cut, when the control is willfully eased, it feels earned, the rattles, wheezes, foghorns and other detritus coalescing into one quite satisfying mass. Nice work.







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Jason Kahn/
Phil Durrant/
Mark Wastell/
Caius Williams:
Where The Stars
(Editions)



The Tony Williams Emergency
w/ John McLaughlin/
Larry Young:
Emergency!
(ALAY)



Vienna FLAMMeS (
Koglmann/
Schiske/
Donhauser/
Buhlmann/
Mautner/
Rohrer):
He Said Boler o'
(ALAY)



Ballister
+
Luke Stewart:
Clocking the Wheel
(Aerophonic)



Duke Ellington Orchestra:
From Fargo Live 1940
(ALAY)



Camila Nebbia/
Chris Corsano:
Six or Seven Ways
owards Becoming Undone
(Relative Pitch)



Hilary Jeffery (
w/ Delius/
Dunmall/
Jeffery/
Poulou):
Green Prism:
Music by Keith Tippett
(Discus)



Paul Dunmall:
Afraid To Speak
(Discus)



Gerry Hemingway/
Izumi Kimura/
Frank Gratkowski/
Christian Weber:
Live At Bau 4
(ezz-thetics by Hat Hut Records Ltd)



Albert Ayler:
Reference: Albert Ayler
Spirits
&
Spirits Rejoice
[CD + POSTCARD]
(ALAY)



Marion Brown/
Burton Greene Quartet:
Reference:
Capricorn Moon,
Why Not &
With Burton Greene Quartet
[2 CDs + POSTCARD]
(ALAY)



The Remote Viewers:
Winter Library
Vol 1
(Remote Viewers)



Miles Davis 3rd Quintet:
Reference: Bitches Brew
Live 1969
In Europe
[2 CDs + 2 POSTCARDS]
(ALAY)



Doyeon Kim (
w/
Sorey/
Maneri/
Fraser):
Wellspring
(Tao Forms)



Jurg Frey/
Apartment House:
Clarinet Quintet
(Another Timbre)



Tom Challenger/
Evan Parker:
May Spring Last a Lifetime
(False Walls)



Bobby Bradford/
Mark Dresser/
Hafez Modirzadeh:
Sonic House Reunion
(NoBusiness)



John Zorn (
w/ Julian Lage/
Gavin Riley):
Seven Sonnets
(Tzadik)



[ahmed] (
Thomas/
Grip/
Gerbal/
Wright):
Play Monk
[2 CDs]
(Otoroku)



Michael Formanek (
w/ Hawkins/
Halvorson/
Fujiwara/
O'Gallagher/
Doxas/
Almeida):
New Digs
(Intakt)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (21231)