When Simon Pyke emerged in 1995 with the first Freeform
album, his sonic structures were still pretty close
to the likes of Autechre
and the rest of Warp’s seminal Artificial
Intelligence, but, as Condensed shows,
he has since taken an entirely different path and shaped
his musical universe in a very unique way, increasingly
bringing elements from the outside world, collecting
sounds from different cultures, and ultimately building
one of the most convincing body of work heard in recent
years.
As Simon announced in the interview
we did with him a few months back, Condensed
collects thirteen tracks spanning nearly eight years.
Although each track has been submitted to some intense
editing work, this album provides nevertheless a brilliant
retrospective of Pyke’s work and gives an insight
into his progression. Put together by Burnt
Friedman and released on his Nonplace label, Condensed
is based on the same principle as last year’s
Replicant Rumba Rockers
collection of material by Friedman’s
co-Flanger mate Atom™.
For Condensed, Friedman
has picked his favourite Freeform tracks, edited them
before creating a non-stop chronological mix. Alternating
between widely available material and rarer tracks,
this album gives a surprisingly playful twist to Pyke’s
complex sonic constructions. The album opens with the
liquid groove of Ect, originally featured on
the first Freeform album Elastic Speakers.
Already featuring some key elements of later releases
and demonstrating the fine balance between abstract
construction and conventional melodies, developed further
on pieces such as the funky Cautious Persuit
or the melancholic Munchogram. As Friedman
slowly moves towards Pyke’s most prominent piece
of work to date with two extracts from his seminal Audio-Tourism
project, for which he travelled to China and Vietnam,
recorded a variety of instruments and environmental
noises and built the album around them, the truly unique
character of his music becomes totally obvious. If Pyke
has always mixed electronic and acoustic elements to
create intricate symbiotic structures, the insertion
of sonic components usually reserved to ethnologic recordings
shatters the perception of the listener in terms of
electronic music and allows Pyke to experiment with
sound in a totally new and fresh way.
Perfect introduction to Freeform, Condensed
is like looking at Simon Pyke’s work from outside,
served by the unapologetic editing of Burnt
Friedman. Yet, Friedman
respects the atmosphere and nature of each composition,
only placing it in Pyke’s work, and establishing
links between each track to piece together a true picture
of one of the most interesting musicians around.
4.8/5 |
