eRikm is a prolific musician who has collaborated with
the likes of musique concrète composer Luc Ferrari
and avant turntablist Christian Marclay. However, he’s
probably rather less well-known than his partner here,
Christian Fennesz,
whose Endless Summer has captured the imaginations
of many. Those looking to explore further the melodic
possibilities of that work might do best to steer clear
of this release, which explores the possibilities of
sound distanced from traditional musical properties.
Listeners familiar with the sort of ambient forms created
by the likes of Thomas Köner, the grittier, arrhythmic
elements of Matmos or the output of Farmers Manual may
feel more at ease though. Complementary Contrasts
Donaueschingen divides roughly between two studio
pieces and three tracks recorded in concert. Given a
blindfold test, though, it would be impossible to tell
which were which.
The performance begins with what sounds like an uncontrolled
electrical signal, its voltage almost certainly lethal.
The signal pulses menacingly, its rhythm quickly mutating.
There are metallic overtones and an accompanying percussive
sound, as if something were pounding upon an electric
guitar’s strings. There’s a strong sense
of intertwining performances here, a sense of duetting
far removed from traditional musical interaction. Despite
the proliferation of genres and sub-genres, it does
seem that there’s a lack of agreed terms when
it comes to naming this... what to call it? The term
Noise on its own is too redolent of uniform, screen-like
static and these performances are too active, too variegated
for that. Perhaps Abstract Electronic Soundscape might
be a fairly appropriate shortform description, however
ungainly. Abstract: although music is generally revered
as the most abstract of artforms, it’s very easy
to perceive popular and classical music’s clear
rhythms and melodic motifs as figuration. Electronic:
there’s precious little here that would exist
away from mains voltage. And Soundscape because the
overall arc of this work conjures a sense of large-scale
form, as if negotiating valleys, mines, cities and the
like. That’s not to say that eRikm and Fennesz
make sweeping, generalised statements. Quite the opposite:
Complementary Contrasts Donaueschingen is
actively detailed, there’s a lot to hear and assimilate.
Listening to this CD prompts one to question what the
most useful response to it is. There’s the possibility
to use analogy (the sound is like a cold winter dawn
in an over-industrialised part of eastern Europe); or
to savour and describe in detail particular elements
(the Geiger-like pitter-patter that’s so brief
it is almost not there, like the individual prick of
discomfort when experiencing pins and needles), and
there’s the opportunity to cite and compare (how
B.J. Nilsen and Christof
Kurzmann are exploring similar territory). Perhaps silence
is the listener’s best response to such activity.
Then, almost immediately one experiences the impulse
to argue, think and respond. That’s the particular
strength of these sounds, to dislodge the listener from
easy assumptions, familiar patterns – to cause
him/her to think. If so, it is very successful. This
work may be seen as a contemporary practice not dissimilar
to that of Russolo’s Intonarumori though perhaps
with different intent. Though continuing to be sound
in and of itself, the final minutes of the concert recording
consist of a beautiful, elegiac wall of noise that summarily
contradicts (or concentrates) all that precedes it (and
most of what has been written here).
Colin Buttimer
4/5 |
