Now
and again in the ambit of stars the path of a planet
is shaped by two suns of different color. Such is the
force residing in the motions of this second collaboration
between Autechre
and Andrew McKenzie of The
Hafler Trio. A miasma of frenetic tones, clipped,
shaved, and elongated by McKenzie,
form so many colliding pressure fronts, billowing and
foreboding; the granulations, buzzes, and power spikes,
swimming in an air of static electricity, resembling
those moments before a thunderstorm of some magnitude.
The palette of this work is a feral abundance of color,
a medley of what is most delicate, coarsest, alive and
artificial. Never is there a moment that enjoys the
secrecy of some nook: each enveloping, subtly shifting
minor-sixth drone is buoyed by a bustling layer of pin-prick
static or by having the low-frequency rumble strafed
with sharp, rusted tones and quaking oscillations. Similarly,
when Autechre make
their presence felt, as in moments when sounds of decay,
dribbles and creaks, bloom into more static clatterings
and abrasive collisions of high-frequency texture, there
remains a certain calm organization, often in the form
of a scratchy hive of subatomic particles, bristling
just underneath. In either case, events aren’t
left to fall uselessly back upon themselves, but are
sustained, surpassed, and, in this sense, incorporated
into ensuing moments, as when a meteor shower of jagged,
robust tones fizzle into a soft, somehow still turbulent,
hum that resembles the purr of power-lines at night.
Composers of some sensitivity, Autechre
and McKenzie don’t
so much force sounds through certain channels as enable
them to occur on their own terms. Though the album flows
swiftly, and denotes a meticulous attention to detail,
there is an elusive aura about each sound, which never
seems to exist on and by itself, but only as the event
comprised of the elements which came before, with itself
to become an element in another, yet to be realized,
structure or sound.
Although the inclination might be to label this egoless
music, the underlying unity of these disparate elements
speaks to the existence of a theme of some sort, perhaps
the always out of reach character that colors and limits
every project. Truly, there is an amusing drift that
doesn’t seem intent on reaching anything in particular,
but, in other parts, there is also an examination of
microscopic details, and a presence which seems interested
in the relationships that are conceived. It is such
cross-hatching of approaches and indefinite questioning
that continually beguiles. Throughout two discs, these
two suns, Autechre
and The Hafler Trio,
flood this planet with many colors, producing a work
that is at once ambiguous, and, in its daring decisions,
intimately personal.
Max Schaefer
4.5/5 |
