LND001 - My Fun - The Quality of Something Audible
THE WIRE ISSUE 264, FEB 2006
You could think of a release like this as a kind of audio blog - a series of sonic events linked together in an order in which their discoverer finds interesting, before being left hanging in cyberspace for passing surfers to investigate. But to do so would diminish the artistry involved. Despite using such a self - deprecatory moniker, sound artist Justin Hardison creates collages where the source material is as beguiling as the placement is meticulous, and The Quality Of Something Audible has much to offer anyone prepared to don headphones and tune in. On a track like "Song Seven", astately, melancholy piano part occupies the centre of the stereo spectrum, while insectoid flurries of digital debris scurry to its farthest reaches. After an abrupt caesura, the piano is replaced by a doleful harp - the logic of this development unclear but somehow convincing. "Wide - Awake" also features a yin, yang pair of harp chords, this timewith a faintly oriental cast - they come swathed in static and punctuated by a single, slurred guitar note that conjures a whole imaginary Morricone score. Like the whole CD, it's poised, astringent and entirely lovely. (Chris Sharp)
DE-BUG.DE
Großartige Platte mit digitalen Zauseln zwischen großer Tragik und jeder Menge Sounds die klingen, als wären sie immer in genau den Momenten aufgenommen, in denen etwas schief läuft. Meist Banalitäten, aber eben die sind es die das Leben so schwer machen, wenn z.B. ein Ballon platzt, oder einfach die Welt aus den Fugen gerät, weil man gerade zu glücklich war. Herzerreißende Platte für alle, die sich von Musik gerne mal überwältigen lassen
STASISFIELD.COM
New York-born and currently London-based composer My Fun has released his latest album, "The Quality of Something Audible." Two years in the making, the album lives up to its title, including a vast array of sonic textures and diverse instrumentation ranging from guitars and drums to harps and strings. Deftly weaving field recordings and acoustic instruments into an expansive series of sound pictures, the album works towards a brilliant fireworks climax which leaves the listener ooo-ing and aah-ing for more. Available as downloadable mp3s or CDR direct from My Fun's website, The Land Of.
VITAL WEEKLY # 504
Following his 'Sunday Best', My Fun, aka Justin Hardison, now releases a full length CDR on The Land Of, which took him two years to record. Like before, he uses field recordings and computer processing of acoustic instruments. It moves away from the previous techno related into a highly dynamic form of micro-sound, with traces of good ol' Fennesz, but without being a strict copy-cat. A track like 'Dun Laoghaire' is with it's minimalist violin playing almost a glitch copy of Steve Reich. The use of classical music (wether or not sampled from records or recorded by My Fun himself) is a nice feature that is present in more tracks. It works nicely along the processed field recordings and the digital glitches that all of these produce. Perhaps in the current day and age, not the most surprising work available (it would have fitted the microwave catalogue nicely, five or so years ago), but I played this a couple of times in a row, and thought it was quite nice, growing with every time I heard it. (FdW)
SANDS-ZINE.COM
Nell'austerità della sua casa, Justin Hardison realizza una disorientante combinazione tra melodia acustica e suoni registrati seguendo un suo percorso personale, lento e diradato costruito su fields recordings, beats minimali e soundscapes astratti. Il disco si muove tra acquarelli melanconici con il semplice uso di strumenti analogici (arpa, chitarra, batteria, violino...) ispessiti da una stratificazione elettronica/rumore. 13 brani d'isolamento creativo che probabilmente avrebbero bisogno di un accompagnamento visivo, ma il tutto è comunque da sé di grande effetto. Se è vero che l'elettronica crea un'insensibile freddezza, è anche vero che tra le maglie di quella freddezza si possano nascondere emozioni quali senso di perdita e un'altro di scoperta che sanno di scorticare un cuore, quindi lasciate che il cuore decida se un disco è speciale. Se siete curiosi ed avete un animo da esploratori scaricatevi l'intero disco sul suo sito personale. (Filippo Buratti)
FORCEDEXPOSURE.COM
SUSANNA BOLLE'S TOP 10
Asher, graceful degradation (conv)
Cluster, 71 (water)
COH, above air (eskaton)
Felix Kubin, idiotenmusic (ultraeczema)
Lionel Marchetti, red dust (crouton
My Fun, the quality of something audible (thelandof)
Anthony Pateras & Robin Fox, flux compendium (editions mego)
Krzysztof Penderecki - the manuscript found in saragossa (obuh)
janek schaefer - migration (bip-hop)
pierre schaeffer, l'oeuvre musicale (ina-grm/emf)
keith fullerton whitman, live in lisbon (kranky)
TOUCHING EXTREMES
There is much to like in this album by Justin Hardison, a London based musician who works under various pseudonyms, My Fun being one of them. We enjoy the irregular yet familiar patterns of everyday sounds, the evocative quality of field recordings that Hardison expands and chews through a beautiful use of looping and layering, the use of instruments with a knowledgeable naiveté which renders the music a cross of emotional reminiscences and pure amusement. The sea, children at play, a phone conversation - everything is perfectly assembled in a series of powerful images enhanced by a complete dynamic control and an excellent panoramic placement of every source. Beautiful things all over the record, with a human touch rarely found in most of today's extra cool-super-glitch collections of laptop fragments; "The quality of something audible" is a self explanatory title in a palatable pot-pourri of big, even bigger, fresh-sounding pleasures. (Massimo Ricci)
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SONHORS JAN 2008
Sonorine : la carte postale qui parle ! La Sonorine était une carte postale / disque qui vous permettait d'enregistrer vous-même votre propre message sur un support, recouvert d'une fine couche de parafine. Seule contrainte, l'émetteur et le récepteur devaient posséder un Phonopostal, l'appareil nécessaire pour enregistrer et lire ces fameuses cartes postales sonores créées au début du sciècle dernier. A noter que la Sonorine, n'était pas seule sur le marché, il y avait également d'autres procédés et marques déposées tel que Tebehem, La Phonopostale, Cartophone, et Postphonocarte.
Nul besoin de phonographe pour écouter la musique de My fun (aka Justin Hardison) ! Ce nouvel opus apporte aux auditeurs une fascinante expérience de l'écoute où chaque piste est présentée comme un amalgame de souvenirs, d'enregistrements effectués dans des endroits spécifiques par l'auteur et qu'il souhaite transmettre aux auditeurs que nous sommes. L'expérience de réappropriation prend également ici toute sa mesure dans cette relation artiste / auditeur. Si vous vous sentez capable de faire l'effort d'imaginer où et comment ces sons ont été collectés, alors l'expérience peut s'avérer tout à fait incroyable. Au détour de procédés de bandes inversées ou d'écho, apparaissent des paysages sonores luxuriants et granuleux, où l'on peut entendre des oiseaux, des cloches, des sons industriels, des insectes, et toutes formes de Field recording. On y devine la proximité de paysages de bord de mer, la nuit en campagne, la pluie, la désolation de friches industrielles, bruits de pas ou de discussions... les bruits ambiants y tiennent une place de choix et ne subissent que très peu de traitements. Altérations électroniques, notes de piano, bruits de guitare ou de cythare accompagne cette mise en musique qui débute dès le début du disque par une télétransportation au bord d'une route de campagne verdoyante, un matin au début du printemps à l'écoute d'une cacophonie incroyable de chants d'oiseaux !
Sonorine devrait contenter les afficionados des pièces douces d'un Christian Fennesz ou des travaux ambiants d'un Brian Eno.
Il fait chaud, froid, parfois humide, la lumière du jour s'estompe pour mieux réapparaître, voire parfois nous éblouir, le divertissement de Justin Hardison devient nôtre. Objectif réussi !
TOFAKI 2007
There are artist that everybody likes and My Fun is one of them. "The Quality of Something Audible", the first full-length of Justin Hardison's project, aimed at "exploring the subtle detail and beauty in everyday sounds", was a favourite with the critics and sat comfortably between Krzysztof Penderecki and Pierre Schaeffer in some reviewer's Top 10 for 2006. Hardison had touched upon the remains of a seemingly forgotten legacy: Emotions, nostalgia, daydreams and a love for the small things in life. If there was anything that some thought reproachable it would have had to be the fact My Fun was so decidely „un-progressive“. That, as we learn with the advent of "Sonorine", is exactly the point.
With his new work, Hardison actually allows sentiments and sentimentality even farther into his world. Fascinated by the thought of catching elusive moments in music and on vinyl, he wilfully loost himself in the history of "talking postcards" and media which would allow you to record personal messages. "Sonorine" is therefore, if you like, the sound-made result of this quest and simultaneously a sort of frozen thought itself. For the time of the album's duration, the listener shares the composer's desire of making his source material come to life through the power of his imagination and by "framing and editing it like you would with images on a postcard".
Slow, sonorous scraping opens the album, as the needle hits the groove in backwards motion and then thick, sirupy drones trickle in, coating the hillscape of Hardison's fantasy with sweet sugar candy. Highly processed, yet never artificially smoothened harmonics and musique concrete-like collages of various concrete sonic events penetrate the texture of time, hitting a nerve, suspending any sense of movement.
There was nothing "new" about "The Quality of Something Audible" – now there is something decidedly oldfashioned about "Sonorine", a feel-good vibe that lingers over the album like the smell of milk and cookies filled your grandma's kitchen on a Sunday morning. Progress, however, is neither the enemy nor the goal – it simply doesn't matter. Hardison's aims are much closer to home than the airy-fairy utopia of academic colleagues, but that suits a music which sets out to remain within the realm of the immediately tangible.
It needs to be stressed, though, that "Sonorine" meanders through some darker passages as well. Suddenly, the key changes and the whispered promises of just a minute ago appear ghoulish and hideous. Towards the end, the field recordings are allowed to take center stage and "A Field in Freilassing" is nothing but humming crickets, wind and the occasional car driving by. As much as it eschews grand statements, the album follows a clear yet winding path, culminating in the silent hymn "Anchor". Justin Hardison's My Fun may be an act everybody likes, but he has achieved this despite doing something many dislike: Taking risks . -Tobias Fischer
SQUIDS EAR
On "Sonorine", My Fun (aka Justin Hardison) constructs lush soundscapes by mixing together field recordings with tonal music in a manner that evokes the Fennesz/Eno end of the spectrum though in its better moments, a sandpaper-y harshness infiltrates the proceedings, lending a much-needed granularity.
As a rule, the two general elements exist in equal balance though they vary in the particulars. On the natural sound side, one hears birds (roosters even!), insects, human chatter, industrial sounds, etc. while the "musical" aspect tends to dwell in the drones seeming to derive from organs, zithers and guitars. The lushness can veer toward the cloying on tracks like "Radiant" (with its reversed tapes) or the closing "Anchor" where the Laraaji-like echoing zither bleeds into both electronic and natural atmospherics in a slightly sticky manner. But when Hardison reins in the ear-candy, he can generate some strong sonic images, tinged with a slightly dystopian vision. This occurs on the sharpest, richest cut, "Setting Fires". It's much less insistent than most of the other pieces, opening with soft electric piano over faraway ambient sounds. Little by little, various elements creep in, a buzz here a bang there, gradually forming a fine tapestry where no particular sound predominates. By the time some mumbled conversation appears, a subtle silvery drone has emerged, gently propelling the piece forward. Toward the end of the work, the drone suddenly suspends, but the remaining crackle retains enough momentum to continue on, locating some surprising ballroom piano that fades in and out like a weak radio transmission, a lovely effect.
"Sonorine" should be of interest to listeners who enjoy the softer side of Fennesz. Those looking for grittier fare will have their appetites whetted by "Setting Fires" as well as portions of other pieces and might hope for more in this direction from Hardison in the future. - Brian Olewnick
TOUCHING EXTREMES NOV 2007
First things first: the name of the artist behind My Fun is JUSTIN HARDISON, not "Jason Hardiman" as many readers of serious magazines will now believe. But you know, a deadline and a few bucks are more important than taking thirty seconds to actually check what one's pretending to listen to and give the musicians their due. Anyway, "Sonorine" is - at least until the end of 2007 - the best that I have heard from My Fun, affirming his compositional maturity through a sapient choice of sonorities that can finally be compared to what's usually called a "style".
Influenced by the concept of an ancient "talking postcard" upon which one could record messages, greetings and other kinds of sound, this album - just perfect at 36 minutes divided into eight tracks - gathers emotions whose depth is inversely proportional to the small doses in which they're gradually released. Hardison didn't leave anything out to elicit memories and recollections: chirping birds, old vinyl albums and hissing tapes, distant trains, sea waves and seagulls, carillons and found instruments. Did I hear "obvious"? Wrong. These soundscapes don't remain in the same area for long.
The slide is soon changed and another reminiscence comes in, even more touching and, at times, sorrowful than the previous ones. There are evocative loops whose complexion has nothing to envy to the specialists of the genre, yet the record's strength is mostly based on the surprising juxtapositions between pre-conceived elements and retrieved materials, which gift the music with an attractive charm smelling of childhood's scents and summer vacations, if you get my point. The unpolished collages that this man brings to our attention manage to render defensive mechanisms completely useless, for "Sonorine" suggests the password to the revival of a regretful vibe that nowadays is considered practically extinct by hip hominids. - Massimo Ricci
TEXTURA.ORG OCT 2007
My Fun (Justin Hardison) gives the evocative soundscaping of Sonorine a unique conceptual twist by orienting it around the titular device itself, an early ‘talking postcard' made from black lacquer that enabled its user to record personalized sounds onto a disc that could then be replayed in another setting (the first known reference to a gramophone postcard appears in an advertisement in a 1903 issue of Phonographische Zeitschrift, and Sonorine is, in fact, only one of many registered trademark names, with Tebehem, La Phonopostale, Cartophone, and Postphonocarte some of the others).
Using field recordings, samples, found sounds, and electronic processing to produce the densely textured material, Hardison manipulates recordings of specific places so that they retain their suggestive power, while at the same time allows their narrative qualities to open-endedly accommodate the listener's projections. Having said that, associative titling sometimes points the listener in a particular direction, as do the contents of the pieces: “Radiant” is exactly that, especially when shimmering organ tones merge with its crackling streams and rippling static, while “Signal Drift” blends buried radio voices, blurry bell tones, and birds into a dynamic, intense drone. Elsewhere, lullaby tinkles ease an imagined baby to sleep, and a man and woman converse, though their words are rendered unintelligible when accompanied by an industrial churn. The Land Of aspires to explore “the subtle detail and beauty in everyday sounds,” and Sonorine certainly succeeds in meeting that goal.
THE WIRE OCT 2007
The Sonorine was an early kind of audio postcard recorded onto black laquer. My Fun's Justin Hardison sees a correlation between his use of field recordings and found sound with the sonorine's framing of audio information for a listener in another location. His techniques range from the underpinning of bird song with vinyl song (hardly the most original strategy, it's true) through surreal, Steven Stapleton-esque narrative collages, to long, droning arcs of sound emerging from radio static. There's a clear sense of Hardison engaging carefully with his material, particularly on "Phonopostal", where he deftly introduces birdsong into a repeating sequence of clipped upper register piano tones. Though presented as reportage, what characterises Sonorine is the way it distorts scale, time, cause and effect- resulting in more of a psychedelic listening experience than its creator possibly had in mind. A slightly chaotic record, but an involving one. - Ken Moline
FURTHERNOISE.ORG OCT 2007
A Sonorine was a black lacquer disc, made around the time of the First World War, used to send a ‘talking postcard’. Sonorine, the second full-length release from My Fun aka Justin Hardison is a postcard from more recent times, made in part from field recordings Hardison collected as a way of remembering the people and places of his journeys.
‘Setting Fires’ opens with a gentle melodic meditation over distant sounds of everyday industry before taking a more sinister turn into a darker-sounding, shifting between radio station frequencies and what appears to be someone breathing nervously or sobbing before resolving into a series of tonal piano chords. ‘Anchor’ features more sampled radio frequencies before transforming into a wavering drone.
The mixture of these more processed sounds with literal audio-portraits of particular places creates a fine balance between tracks that merely show you that place, and others that tell you what it was like to be there. While some tracks show you a photograph (the birdsong of ‘Musik-Postakarten’ or the cricket song and passing car featured in ‘A Field in Freilassing’), others are more akin to the writing a lonely traveller would send home on the back of the card. ‘Sonorine’ could easily be the musings of a frustrated backpacker stuck inside, staring at the rain, while in ‘Signal Drift’ a background that sounds like a constant telephone ring and snatches of foreign-language conversation (again from shortwave radio) could be a lone traveller trying to reach out to those around her.
With original artwork designed by Hardison’s partner Kimberly Ellen Hall, the CD comes in a beautifully designed ‘envelope’ whose writing hints at turn-of-the-century Europe but also somewhere contemporary. Not listening to the CD inside would have been as difficult as not turning over a postcard to see who it was from.
Review by Stacey Sewell
STARTLING MONIKER AUG 2007
With his fourth release as My Fun, Justin Hardison brings listeners a fascinating, inverted listening experience on “Sonorine.” With each track presented as a “postcard” of sound– hence the title, which refers to the now-antiquated souvenir records made for fun at tourist locales– it becomes clear that unlike most albums, Hardison has already made the journey and is ‘reporting back’ to the listener.
It’s a simple, but delicious, way of turning the listening experience on it’s head. And although the disc’s glassine layers of pianos, birdcalls, traffic sounds, and radio are nothing like early psychedelic music; it’s interesting to note that the artist/listener relationship is similar: Hardison has been on a trip, and wants to tell us all about it. It was only later on that artists could safely assume listeners had turned-on adequately to understand what was happening.
For those first experiencing “Sonorine,” it’s much the same– a pleasant, but bewildering earful of a highly-realistic world, albeit one much unlike our own. On “Phonopostal,” (my favorite track, incidentally) Hardison introduces the listener into what seems an ordinary environment– the tinkling of a piano, and some sort of mechanical sound. But then… well, it all comes loose. With a loud ‘thunk,’ this (and I’m imagining a Victorian drawing room) sprouts legs, propelling itself slowly through an aviary where distant train noises merge with the grandfather clock’s clangorous intonation. The drawing room has become a steampunk, bizarro-world dark ride now. Applying the brakes, Hardison startles a flock of sea birds.
The production of “Sonorine” is basically a real treat. For those willing to put in the effort necessary to consider the ‘where’ and ‘how’ of the sounds, and to accept the notion that these are postcard recordings of places; the album becomes quite fantastic. Sounds that are ordinarily small take a front-and-center position, while other sounds move in ways dissimilar to their more ordinary counterparts. At times, the listener realizes the most peculiar situations must have occurred to generate such a milieu– and if you can hold that surprised feeling without coming back to earth, you may just find yourself wherever it is that Hardison has visited.
Ignore the terrible review from Vital Weekly (with the crackhead money quotes, “no prize for originality given here” and “it could almost be a real CD release” ) –this disc is highly recommended. (Dave X of the ITDE show)
VITAL WEEKLY # 587
This is the fourth release by My Fun, also known as Justin Hardison (see also Vital Weekly 471, 504 and 551) and there is truly a strong upwards curve to be spotted in his work. Hardison started out with something quite beat related, but after that he went to all things field and all things micro. On 'Sonorine' he adds instruments. A sonorine was a spoken word postcard which you could send with your own personal message carved into it. You can easily imagine that such a thing would sound quite cracky and perhaps My Fun thinks that's a sort of pre-date micro glitch. On the eight tracks on this release things crack, glitch and click a lot. Voices, field recordings, guitar sounds and lots of plug ins: that's the extent of My Fun's music, which is still close to the likes of especially Fennesz with this release, but also to Stephan Mathieu, but it's growing, composition wise. His pieces are getting better, more complicated and better. No prize for originality given here (but that's something we never do), but within the frame My Fun is working, this most certainly a fine release. It also has a great cover, so it could almost be a real CD release. That will happen no doubt one day, if My Fun keeps on growing like this. (FdW)
SANDS-ZINE SEPT 2007
Le ‘sonorine’ erano cartoline-fonografo introdotte in Francia all’inizio del ‘900, ma in realtà non ebbero mai una diffusione di massa perché il destinatario doveva essere in possesso, per poterle ascoltare, di un apparecchio audio-grafico eguale a quello del mittente. In pratica si trattava del primissimo tentativo di quella che con il nastro magnetico prima e con il calcolatore elettronico poi sarà la registrazione casalinga. E proprio alle sonorine si è ispirato Justin Hardison (aka My Fun) nella realizzazione di quello che è il suo piccolo capolavoro, pensando cioè i vari brani come altrettante cartoline sonore. Alla base di tutto ci sono delle registrazioni d’ambiente e l’idea è quella di ricreare dei piccoli quadri d’ambiente sonoro, ma il tutto è comunque dotato di una musicalità molto prominente e anche dal punto di vista della struttura i brani mostrano una complessità che, comunque, non approda mai dalle parti della pura e semplice astruseria. Il breve risveglio iniziale, con impresso il canto del gallo e di uccelli su un fondo di fruscii da vecchio disco, può dare un’impressione errata, cioè quella di registrazioni lasciate troppo a se stesse, cioè di assenza dell’aspetto compositivo, ma la realtà dei brani successivi parla un altro linguaggio, se si esclude il fugace passaggio di A Field In Freilassing, e allora sono fiotti di suoni para-organistici, voci sommerse, concerti di campane, marosi di risonanze scabre, arpeggi di tastiere giocattolo, frastuoni arcani, grida di gabbiani dalle discariche della quotidianità e ritmature torbide. “Sonorine”, se pensiamo che l’autore è un musicista britannico, è un disco di musica concreta anomalo e forse per questo ancor più affascinante.
Un doppio grazie a Justin Hardison: per il bel disco e per averci fatto conoscere un interessante episodio della storia fonografica. Non si finisce mai d’imparare.
RARE FREQUENCY TOP LISTS JUL 2007
# Asher, The Depths, The Colors, The Objects and the Silence (Mystery Sea) CD
# Kevin Drumm and Daniel Menche, Gauntlet (Editions Mego) CD
# Giuseppe Ielasi & Nicola Ratti, Bellows (Kning Disk) CD
# Jazkamer, Eat Shit (Asspiss) CD
# Lichens, Omns (Kranky) CD
# My Fun, Sonorine (The Land of) CD
# Ophibre, Puzzle Pieces (self-released) CDr
# Signal Quintet, Yamauchi (Cut) CD
# Asmus Tietchens + Richard Chartier, Formation (Die Stadt) CD
# The Tuss, Rushup EP (Rephex CD
# Mark Wastell, Come Crimson Rays (Kning Disk
CYCLIC DEFROST FEB 2008
The poetic mystery of Justin Hardison’s ghostly pastoralism flowers in the image of the sonorine, the talking postcard that allowed one to record a personal message onto disc. The music exudes an interest in the power and timelessness of the drone, but it develops on a personal plane, and is thus rendered tempermentally more volatile and unpredictable than such a title might suggest.
The controlled and contingent elements of Hardison’s pieces crush together like a coming storm. There is something elemental about the spurious assemblage of nebulous wafts, caked with firy static, and underpinned by coldly dramatic coda’s of piano strikes that set the teeth on edge. Computer processing plays in the overtones, bending and thickening things into a narcotised ambience. Pieces return to this state time and again (too much, no doubt), but no one visit is overly long. The works move effectively to places microscopic in their detail; others vast and expansive in their wonder, and there is even a fair amount of congenial and scrappy intermingling between the two.
Another key element is the suggestive and beautifully mysterious nature of the found sounds which spill through these tracks. Men and women converse, birds chirp, and babies cry, all lending the proceedings a clear narrative dimension that is well laid-out, but with enough room for interpretation built in. In all of these sound moments, one senses the spirit of curiosity, excitement, and discovery that animated its creator. - Max Schaefer
SMALLFISH JULY 2008
Label boss Justin Hardison's My Fun project is a really interesting one. Using a classic contemporary minimalist base he weaves an enchanting spell on us with a series of very compelling works. From deep, experimental electronica through to lovely textures and drones, there's a tangible and very pleasing sense of melody. That's tempered at times by a more challenging tone that creeps in and really creates a great balance of styles. Field recordings and disembodied voices mutate into semi-classical strings and almost electro-acoustic sounding moments are all present and correct as well. Varied and beautifully produced, this is a very classy release indeed.
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LND003 - Darren McClure - Softened Edges
TOUCHING EXTREMES APRIL 2008
Quietly, unassumingly, The Land Of is becoming one of the labels to keep an
eye on. They do their thing almost unnoticed, each release possessing a
singular dignity that is also gifted with natural beauty. Darren McClure
alternates slowly unfolding meditative electronics and field recordings, the
latter at times slightly disturbed by electrostatic interferences - check
"Pink river". This disc might be a cure against the excesses of hedonism
typical of self-made products: modesty and absence of theoretical mendacity
are at the basis of little miniatures whose unobtrusive character remains in
evidence even when the sonic mass gets thicker. In that moment, we are
confronted by a nucleus of pulsating frequencies and magnetic radiations
that float around the air at first, then stand in place while being in
movement, dead flowers on the surface of a placid sea. There's a strong
rhythmic component in a track like "KG court" that wouldn't be out of
context on For 4 Ears, its subterranean drive vaguely reminiscent of
atmospheres usually elicited by people such as Gunter Muller or Norbert
Moslang, only with a definite touch of humanity. Elsewhere, old tricks like
the "locked groove" effect still appear fresh enough, when accompanied by
lulling, trance-inducing harmonies. Lyophilized minimal sapience
delightfully rendered in a finely crafted album. (Massimo Ricci)
TOFAKI JAN 2008
These are not good times for masochists. They are pretty good for Darren McClure, though. One of the many sound artists out there who are seeing beauty in rounded shapes, fragile forms, dreamy development and – obviously - softened edges, his sweet and warm style has been gratefully received by a netlabel community hungry for emotions and human sensitivity instead of cool abstractions. Just the right kind of artist to be picked up by Justin Hardison and his “the land of” imprint.
If you’re going to do a physical release, after all, you might as well do it right. And Hardison’s publications have a lot going for them. The disc once again comes in the brown CD-bag made of raspy cardboard typical of the label, with the backcover artwork sprayed onto the carton with white paint – a haptophile’s dream come true.
And then, of course, there’s the aesthetical relatedness with Hardison’s own work under the name of My Fun. Both artists are fascinated by the romance of the past and by little gestures which can mean so much. Both enjoy keeping a certain naivety to their music, even though they simultaneously strive for utmost perfection in tiny details. And they are equally interested in picking up small-scale noises emmitted by a miniature world running next to ours.
Field recordings, then, are a logical component of “Softened Edges” and their importance is stressed even more by the fact that the phase of collecting them coincides with the actual arranging. Composing, to McClure, means enriching his smooth drones and the occasional clicking rhythm with sounds of nature, technology, cars, planes, camp fires, birds and less easily discernible sources. This exterior material streams through the body of the music like a breath or a heartbeat – they can not be separated from each other. On “Distance” and “Pink River”, the field recordings even take center-stage, with manipulated fragments of frequencies humming and buzzing in the background. On most tracks, though, the two worlds strive for a fruitful and organic symbiosis.
The fact that some of the sounds are very airy and contextual, rather than concrete (such as room tones and various ambiances), means that all pieces have a peaceful mood and a tranquil, gentle and warm feeling to them. Slightly ominous and enigmatic states like “KG Court”, which is propelled by deep bell soundings, and the caffeeine-stutterings of “Tunnel Talk” are the exception in a cosmos of aural caresses. And yet, McClure uses his micro-material in a rather traditional way. His music concentrates on grooves, dynamics, harmony and short melodic sequences interacting with each other. It is as if he were bringing these tiny treasures up to our world and placing them in familiar order to reduce their alien nature.
He succedes because “Softened Edges” is filled to the brim with the love of its creator. The details mentioned above are not the product of an obsessively meticulous mind, but of someone who fosters parental feelings towards his tracks, adding yet more candy and another bar of chocolate to that christmas food parcel. It even shows in the titles: “Let your eyes go” or “Stray Signal” are testimony of an attitude of patience and letting a work grow in its own time. Definitely not a good album for people who can’t sit still and simply enjoy. - Tobias Fischer
SQUIDS EAR DEC 2007
Laptop and software sound processors, all dissenting opinions to the contrary, deny Alexander the Great's cause for weeping—such technology has demonstrated there are indeed an infinite amount of brave new worlds to conquer. Many doors were flung wide and imaginations left unbridled after the advent and subsequent unveiling of the modern, revolutionary (read: affordable, acquirable) synthesizer. The next step in that revolution has been the adaptability of the personal computer and the barrage of softwares designed for it, ushering in the next phase of individualistic sound design and production. Forgive the stating of the obvious, but never before has the lone artist been so empowered, aided by technology's greatest enabler. Yes, there are those who have succumbed to simple number crunching, data jockeys futzing about in code they don't understand to the service of "music" that's been fairly readymade for them-modern day mouseketeers for the new age. A select few have done what any artist worth his or her salt would with such formidable tools-use them with care, clean hands, and composure.
Darren McClure is the latest new kid on the block. He's no doubt stuffed himself to the gills with all the hot new gadgets (figuratively speaking) and drunk deep of colleagues from whom he's stylistically assimilated (Room40's and 12k's brethren instantly leap to mind, some late period Ritornell issues, and there are countless others). They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery-judging from Softened Edges, McClure's sublime debut, he's not produced a document of earth-shattering innovation, but it's still a helluva piece of pillowy ear-craft. These nine proto-"ambient" works take field recordings of McClure's urban surroundings as their template, get washed through various digital arrays, and come out as giddy new wonders, the better to work their magic through your aural canals.
All the tracks are of a similar stripe, but that isn't the rub—it's the subtle affectations that count, the recontextualizing of the samples, the processing of basic sonic detritus in the origination of something borrowed, something new, something wonderful, and something blue. Is McClure simply dabbling in the datasphere? No, there's delicate, considered movements at play here (it apparently took six months between source recording and literal finalization). And it shows: "Pink River" imagines a trek through a bird sanctuary situated next to a digital arboretum that mimics the ornithological squawks with its own flock of buzzgulls, bits of gauzy machine noise flapping wings. "Tunnel Talk" makes the most of fat test tone loops and the patter of acid rain on steel pavement; "Lab Pin" is simply gorgeous gamelan ambience, McClure lifting cues from the most abstract corners of Jon Hassell's fourth world (minus the trumpet). Irruptions of scattershot fuzz and buzz alight "Low in the Sky", shuffling off into the distant twilight as crystalline synths parse a crushed velvet tableau, closing the disc on a surfeit of melancholia. McClure's mined a rich seam on Softened Edges that isn't anywhere near cliché-there's many miles to go before he sleeps. And the fact that the disc is pressed in micro-quantities of 100 means you'd better hurry before it shucks this mortal coil. - Darren Bergstein
TEXTURA.ORG DEC 2007
Originally from Northern Ireland and now living in Matsumoto, Japan, Darren McClure constructs the nine soundscapes on Softened Edges from field recordings—sometimes radically processed and sometimes untreated—and software-generated sounds. The material is evocative, regardless of whether the source material is identifiable or not. Though “Let Your Eyes Go” is assembled from heavily-treated sounds, its atmospheric drones and melodic fragments convincingly suggest the shimmer and sparkle of a still pond on a summer afternoon; “Distance,” on the other hand, is a purer field exercise with thunderstorms, pelting rain, bird chirps, and car noises cohering into a directly referential collage.
Sonically, the material offers up no shortage of beguiling chatter and ripple. In “St Fence,” gleaming organ tones and repetitive motifs produce a glassy façade, while “Kg Court” is characterized by gently tolling bells, fluttering electronics, and churning rhythms. There's a microsound, 12k-styled feel to the material with McClure obsessively focusing on minute elements, structures, and rhythms. “Lab Pin” is a particularly lovely setting of becalmed tones, tinkles, and vaporous drift where softly rising melodies buried within the clouds are so quiet they're almost inaudible. Needless to say, Softened Edges proves most rewarding when broached as ‘headphones listening.'
EARLABS.ORG FEB 2008
Darren McClure is not afraid to experiment and abstract himself from conventional and familiar forms. He is neither afraid to establish a connection with his previous works.
Softened edges takes strange turns and unsuspected directions, Darren McClure's emphasis is open and complex and yet extremely focused.
Rhythm and melody are elements that Darren McClure has managed to incorporate to his work without necessarily clashing with the lucid and conscious level of abstraction and randomness that is so characteristic of his sound; Softened edges could be McClure's most daring and complex work to date although they are hints of rhythm on his organic textures and grainy noises, and melodic elements isolated surrounded by layers of sines, drones and noise.
Softened edges is a great successful effort to take emotions to strange places and unlikely conditions, it combines and confronts the best of two words: the effort to make music and the effort to make non-music. - David Velez
BAD ALCHEMY 056
Auf diesen Nordiren, der im japanischen Matsumoto subtile Mixturen aus Fieldrecordings und Laptopglitches anrührt, hätte ich auch als MySpace-‚Friend‘ von GoGooo stoßen können. Tatsächlich gibt es da geteilte ästhetische Vorlieben, ein geistesverwandtes Klangideal, wohlähnliche Akzente im Gefühlshaushalt. Zart muss es sein, das Verweben von realer ‚Natur‘ und digitalem, granularem Feinstaub. Publiziert von Justin Hardison aka My Fun in Brooklyn, verstärkt Softened Edges programmatisch die Internationale der Sublimen, die Differenzen und Gegensätze, wie die zwischen ‚Natur‘ und Technik, draußen und drinnen, Nähe und Ferne, Click und Bip und Melodie abdämpfen und aufheben. Molekularer Klingklang verfugt alle Brüche, harmonische Drones salben die neuen Nähte, vertraute Geräusche, etwa Autos, die durch Regen fahren, garantieren, dass die digitalen und virtuellen Welten ‚organisch‘ und ‚human‘ die analogen integrieren. Ein morphendes Lob der Gemenge und Gemische, in denen die Elektronen von Großvateruhren und dem Brunnen vor dem Tore zu träumen und zu singen scheinen. [BA 56 rbd]
SANDS ZINE JAN 2008
Disco di rara bellezza, questo del nord irlandese Darren McClure. Field recordings resi irriconoscibili - o quasi - tramite trattamenti elettronici e scomposti, frammentati, assemblati in nove tracce poetiche e rilassate in uno stile molto vicino ai soundscape dei Minamo, ma pur conservando un gusto personale. Fa quasi strano pensare che non vi siano strumenti suonati né toni generati elettronicamente, ma che invece tutto il materiale contenuto in "Soften Edges" (titolo azzeccatisssimo) sia di origine acustica ed analogica.
A tratti ricorderebbe anche il nostrano Adriano Zanni/Punck, non fosse per una maggiore serenità che traspare dalle tracce dell’irlandese rispetto alle più cupe frequenze del ravennate.
Nessun brano spicca su altri, e le tracce del disco, tutte di durata intermedia (nessuna oltre i sette minuti) sembrano costituire un flusso ininterrotto e soave dove solo raramente affiorano asprezze inaspettate (Pink River) o aperture ambient (Lab Pin).
Un artista forse non esattamente da avanguardia, ma certo da tenere d’occhio.
GONZO CIRCUS May 2008
De Noord-Ierse muzikant Darren McClure resideert al enige tijd in Japan. Voor zijn album ‘Softened Edges’ verzamelde hij daar veldopnames (smeltende sneeuw, krakend grind, onweer) om die in zijn composities te verwerken. Het grootste deel van deze geluiden werden bewerkt: uiteengetrokken of juist vertraagd. Anderen bleven onaangeraakt. Het resultaat is zeer ruimtelijk, maar ook warm en organisch tegelijkertijd. De geluiden waaruit ‘Let Your Eyes Go’ werd opgebouwd, werden flink bewerkt, maar toch roepen haar atmosferische drones en melodische fragmenten beelden op van een waterfestijn tijdens een hoogzomerse namiddag.
SMALLFISH JULY 2008
I first heard this some time ago and was really pleased to hear a physical release from Darren after he'd put out several MP3 releases. As you'd expect from The Land Of, it's a work of some substance that uses deep, melodic textures and electronics along with a slightly more experimental leaning from time to time. The end reslut is a series of exquisite tracks that are pure contemporary minimalism, but with the added bonus of being utterly listenable as well. The balance between beauty and mood is superb and there's much genuinely striking material here. Really a great album and definitely one for fans of 12k or Spekk to check out. Lovely.
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WHITELINE MAR 2008
With an ever growing catalogue of works behind him, Asher is now one of a steadily growing army of refreshingly original sound-workers whose work infuses the catalogues of labels such as Con-V, leerraum[ ], Mystery Sea, Term, and others.
Intervals explores and investigates our perceptions of time through a series of 39 highly restrained, and minutely wrought pieces. We are advised to listen to the collection in “random shuffle” mode, in order to plunge ourselves into a sequence of diverse and evolving soundscapes, providing us with endless permutations of the same atmospheres. This is not unlike the aural equivalent of an experimental Ballard or Burroughs novel, whereby the audience expectations are actively short-circuited- the piece can be entered from any point, and disjunctions and discontinuities are actively encouraged. Here audience becomes editor, but more importantly, we also become the closing link of the composition, completing a cycle of events initiated by its composer.
The source recordings for this work represent atmospheres culled from the inside and the outside of Goddard College, Plainfield Vermont, although the location here is not of any intrinsic importance. What is important is that we are suspended in between external and internal moments – the “intervals” of the title, fused and frozen memories that are simultaneously familiar, yet slightly unsettling. Combined with the refreshingly delcious day-glo cover , with explicit and well constructed sleeve notes, this is possibly one of my favourite releases of the year so far..not a cliché, nor hint of plagiarism in sight..an artist and label that I for one, will be watching closely. Sound art of the highest order. (BGN)
Vital Weekly 615 FEB 2008
The previous work by Asher was a bit of a setback for me, but with this new release he's back in shape, as far I'm concerned. This time not in the format of MP3 but real audio, on a real CDR (and blimey: The Land Of are excellent packagers of that!). Asher recorded a bunch of material at the campus of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. It's hard to tell what, if at all, Asher did with these recordings, but one thing is sure: he spliced them apart. Unlike many of his previous releases which consist of a single piece, we have thirty nine pieces, many of them not more than a minute. The listener is recommended to play this at random (and I'd 'on repeat'), which certainly shuffles the various sections. There is pure (and untreated?) field recording material to be spotted around here, but also piano playing in the form of loosely tones. Hiss however seems to be a constant factor here as well as in much of his previous work. Like there has been a lot of erosion, or the use of a whole bunch of old ferro cassettes been used. It's an Asher trademark by now. The recomposing aspects of this release appealed lesser to me since that race was already made before, but listened to in a strict linear fashion, this is quite a fine release. Moving from the inside to the outside and back, the chirping of insects, the piano and other unidentifiable sounds make this one of the best Asher releases so far. Great! (FdW)
SANDS-ZINE APRIL 2008
Abbiamo recensito non molto tempo fa il grazioso mini CD-R edito da Koyuki, esempio di minimalismo sonoro (e grafico) quasi assoluto nel campo dei microsuoni di origine elettronica, e ci troviamo ora tra le mani un'altra opera altrettanto difficile, forse altrettanto minimale, ma profondamente diversa nel contenuto.
Trattasi di ben 39 tracce in poco più di 40 minuti (la più lunga ne occupa 2, molte si aggirano sui 30 secondi), registrare a volumi davvero bassi e contenenti field recordings al limite dell'udibile, tra passi sulle foglie, lontani cinguettii, rumorini indecifrabili e ronzii di varia natura, tutto rigorosamente sporco di fruscii inverosimili nella loro prevalenza. Molti lettori credo già gridino 'bella cagata', eppure, nonostante la mia stessa scetticità iniziale, devo ammettere che il lavoro non è né fine a sé stesso né brutto. Certo non piacerà ai fan di Eros Ramazzotti o degli Anathema, ma costoro credo che legittimamente approdino su lidi diversi da quelli delle sabbie di Sands-zine, dove invece maniaci del suono scarnificato e di Francisco Lopez, Murmer o simili abbondano e sono in grado di apprezzare anche questi 39 fruscianti frammenti.
Parte del godimento è dato dal gioco all'indovinello, ossia "che diavolo sarà questo suono, mi pare forse qualcuno che cucina... o forse rametti spezzati in una foresta?", parte è effettivo piacere d'ascolto quando, una traccia su quattro circa, emerge un pianoforte malinconico e rarefatto che pare comunque registrato su grammofono nel 1910.
Certo non è un disco da 10 in pagella, ma l'unico difetto è forse quello di non aver voluto dare alcuna forma ai campioni (alcuni terminano tronchi in modo irritante) e di aver insistito così tanto in un'idea del tipo "lasciamo le cose così come sono". Del resto la press sheet e la confezione stessa (ricoperta di concettuali scritte esplicative) spiegano che il disco contiene solo registrazioni fatte nel campus del Goddard College di Plainfeld, nel Vermont, e che i suoi 'frammenti' (così vengon definiti) vanno suonati rigorosamente in random.
Io dico che certo vanno ascoltati in un luogo silenzioso, ed in cuffia: in tal modo, che ci crediate o no, vivrete un'esperienza splendida, trasportati tra i delicatissimi frammenti di spensierata solitudine di questi Intervalli. Dovrete solo armarvi di pazienza immensa, ma ne varrà la pena. (Matteo Uggeri)
SMALLFISH JULY 2008
A great slab of experimentalism from Asher here on the Land Of label. I like the fact that concept of the work is written as part of the cover and artwork and it's actually a very interesting read. Intervals is the name and also the theme. Using field recordings made at the Doddard College in Vermont, Asher has put together a series of short works that are engaging, listenable and varied. Aural memories is the way the sound is described and I can see exactly why. Each piece has a distant, hazy quality (presumably due to the nature of the recordings) and you'll catch occasional fragments of sound cutting through. It's a very dreamlike feeling and his idea of time and movement is conveyed with skill. A thoroughly enjoyable album which, to be honest, needs to be listened to all the way through as the samples will only give you a taste of what it's really like. Super.
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LND005 - The Green Kingdom - Laminae
WHITELINE JUNE 2008
I’m at a loss to conjur up new, descriptive words for this type of material, save to say that it is stunningly beautiful, and exquisitely worked. The titles really say it all, Late Summer, A Hidden Stream, Fuji Apple, The Scarlet Ibis, and Une..The Green Kingdom have featured most prominently on net labels such as 12k’s subsidiary, Term, and their sound definitely lends itself to the working methods of Sogar, for instance, or Sawako, using delicate, evanescent, and softly focussed instrumentation, possibly keyboards, scattered with glitchy remnants. These gently paced pieces ease their way into my consciousness, a waking dream realised in pastel shades, an aural Monet painting, if you will - full of divine shavings of tone and cascading guitar, reverbed and sensuous, stuttering and serene, quietly epic. The Green Kingdom win me over with the kind of music that does not require direct engagement, but permeates my day with images of serenity and relaxation, bathing my imagination in warmth and light. Technically, The Green Kingdom have created something of a masterwork here, and The Land Of as a label have made their mark with a very fine piece of work, presented in a utilitarian card cover, letterpress printed with silvery scrolls and hand written texts. This CD can come with no higher recommendation from me, other than going and checking this out for yourself.. a label and an artist worthy of your utmost attention. BGN
SMALLFISH JULY 2008
I was a massive fan of last years self titled album on Sem by The Green Kingdom. In fact it featured very near the top of my end of year chart. So, I'm stoked to be able to bring you a limited quantity of this equally superb CDr from New York's The Land Of imprint. All I can say is it's an utterly beautiful selection of tracks which use an organic / electronic style to convey a gorgeously tranquil feeling of serenity and calm. Drifting textures, tinkling sounds and an overall sense of warmth and depth are combined with moments of loose and fluid processed guitar to give you a truly memorable and downright lovely album. This comes highly recommended and, as a slight aside, you can look forward to another imminent release from The Green Kingdom in the near future...
VITAL WEEKLY #633 JULY 2008
Behind The Green Kingdom is one Michael Cottone, of whom I never heard, despite his releases on Term, SEM, EKo, Mandorla, Skam, Tibprod, Heldernacht and Room40. He uses a 'variety of processed acoustic and electronic sources, sampled textures and field recordings' - the known story for The Land Of label, but like so many of their releases, The Green Kingdom is actually quite nice again, and rather nice than absolutely great. Cottone uses xylophone, synthesizers, thumb piano and lots and lots of computer processing to create his music. It never gets original, these moody textures of thunder, lightning, light and joy, but it always remains warm and cosy, a nice place to be in. I played this release three times in a row, as I was busy doing other things at the same time and liked the mellow tone of the music. Of course one could argue that it's non presence failed to leave an impression, but I rather take an opposite view. Mood music like this is non-presence, but should it be gone, than you notice something is missing. A small but essential difference. Nice one. (FdW)