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 
  A Scar In The Air
  (Aural Terrains) 


  
   review by Max Schaefer
  2009-03-05
Thanos Chrysakis: A Scar In The Air (Aural Terrains)

Sound artist Thanos Chrysakis builds a sonic nexus not in view of sending keening tones shooting through the stratosphere, subtly shrugging off their immediate influences and acquiring an intangible, diffuse, atomised quality. A Scar in the Air, as a continuation of his inscape series, which strives to bring out and accentuate the timbral affinities of the source sounds in question, instead shows no small interest in a system of myriad relations and the sympathy and antipathy that hold between them. Consider it, then, a myriad-faceted polyhedron: as it gyrates before your ears, different aspects flash into focus.

The main appeal, however, lies in how Chrysakis turns this process into one of emanation. Rarely can something so painstakingly assembled sound so fluid. A distinct, disciplined sense for composition emerges from each of these works. And yet, at the same time, its fruit is a music that stands as a dynamically linked succession of events, which expand and contract, systole and diastole, with slow, ectoplasmic motions.

As a system, though, it doesn't push toward equilibrium, but toward its own outer parameters. A certain rockpool mysteriousness is thus maintained, the sonic microcosms gauging a hole in the fabric and confirming that strangeness and enchantment are still part of the picture. Inasmuch as the pieces display formal integrity, they are also effervescent, forceful, fiercely idiosyncratic and beautifully damaged, gobbling up every accidental influence that falls into their path. "Inscape 27" sees crystalline edges undergo a gradual yet significant metamorphosis into mouldy, indistinct forms, while, similarly, the full-spectrum harmonics and irregular pulses of "Inscape 24" evoke the rush of the bloodstream and the firing of synapses via a diverse palette. At its mid-point, though, it is cut right open, the delicate pulses and pings scattering like flocks of birds. The album demonstrates real passion for sonic viscera, making this bit of sonic scarring a strangely pleasurable, not to mention engaging, experience.







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:


Impro-Viziok 2.2.:
Anna (
The Music Of
Szilard Mezei)
(FMR)



John Butcher/
Ute Wassermann/
Martin Blume:
Leaflight:
Close Calls
(FMR)



Oakland Reductionist
Orchestra:
West And East
Baying
(Queen Bee Records)



Bucher/
Tan/
Countryman:
Nonlinear Expressions
(FMR)



Le UN (
Agnel/
Battus/
Chiesa/
Doneda/
Gauget/
Marchetti/
Petit):
Le Havre
[VINYL + CD]
(UnRec)



Patricia Brennan:
Of The Near And Far
(Pyroclastic Records)



Maria Valencia/
Matt Moran/
Brandon Lopez:
Tarabita Espiral
(Relative Pitch)



Zeena Parkins/
Cecilia Lopez:
Redshifts
(Relative Pitch)



Berlinde Deman:
Plank 9
(Relative Pitch)



Taborn/
Cline/
Gilmore:
Trio of Bloom
(Pyroclastic Records)



Eri Yamamoto/
Matthew Shipp:
Horizon
(Mahakala Music)



Pierre Favre/
Sergio Armaroli/
Andrea Centazzo/
Francesca Gemmo:
The Art Of Sound(s) (
first visit)
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



Francesca Gemmo/
Magda Mayas:
Tides In The Mirror (
first visit)
(ezz-thetics by
Hat Hut Records
Ltd)



John Edwards/
Luis Vicente/
Vasco Trilla:
Choreography of Fractures
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Joe Morris/
Peter Evans/
Tyshawn Sorey:
Comprehensive
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Ray Anderson/
Joe Hertenstein Quartet feat. Michael Moore/
Michael Formanek:
7th Dinner Live
(Listen! Foundation (
Fundacja Sluchaj!))



Marc Sabat:
Bach Tunings
(Another Timbre)



Magnus Granberg /
Skogen:
The Willow Bends
And So Do I
(Another Timbre)



The Necks:
Disquiet
[3 CDs]
(Northern Spy)



Jason Hwang Kao:
Myths of Origin
(True Sound Recordings)







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. (59743)