This long overdue re-issue celebrates the unique encounter of eleven like-minded musicians from Japan, England, Wales, Germany, Basque Country & Norway, brought together in the studio for one day only for this daytime recording session followed by an evening concert.
Format: CDR Condition: New Released: 2013 Country: Great Britain Packaging: Cardboard Sleeve Sealed Originally issued on L'innomable in an edition of 300 in 2007. Recorded at LMC studios, in Briton, London, on June 17th, 2003.
"In spite of the numbers, the music never gets crowded, and an ensemble character successfully emerges right at the top of this single, thirty minute piece. Instead of the usual tight focus and close-up sound, this is a more diffuse recording in a larger room. So the scale opens up like a stormy vista of dark clouds - the ominous atmospherics alternate with hovering, shifting drones, from stratospheric sines and feedback to bone-rattling bass tones. It's not all restrained reductionism, and moments of drama occur throughout, giving the piece a satisfying arc. Individual contributions are unsurprisingly hard to identify, and the aim is clearly to construct an ensemble sound.
Wastell's mini-orchestra also performed live in the evening of that same June day. I saw them in Hackney in a condemned building, where I recall feeling that if the gaping floorboards didn't get you, the thick dust would. In spite of the odd, not to say life-threatening, performing environment, the concentration and focus of the playing was memorable. By the end of the evening some feverish brows certainly needed caressing."-Clive Bell, The Wire