Best known for his multiple collaborations with Tom
Middleton, as Reload, Global Communication and Jedi
Knights amongst others, Mark Pritchard has, in the second
half of the nineties, focused on his numerous solo projects,
including drum’n’bass outfit Use Of Weapons,
before teaming up with Dave Brinkworth on Harmonic 33.
The pair’s first album, Extraordinary People,
released in 2002 on Alphabet Zoo, was based around a
series of hip-hop influenced instrumentals on which
Pritchard and Brinkworth applied old school electronic
ambiences. Pritchard was more recently spotted fiddling
with soulful exotic beats and atmospheres on his Trouble
Man album Time Out Of Mind for Far Out Recordings.
Returning to Warp for the first time since the release
of Theory Of Evolution, which compiled tracks
released on Global Communication’s Evolution label,
Pritchard presents with Music For Film, Television
& Radio Vol. 1 a very different piece of work.
Pushing their original soundscapes into new directions,
Pritchard and Brinkworth assemble here an interesting
array of sounds and ambiences. Yet, although this album
was conceived around the concept of library music and
all it entails, every single last detail was in fact
created from scratch. Bringing to life their sonic world
with subtle touches, referencing the pop sensibilities
of John Barry or the cinematic soundscapes of Ennio
Morricone, they also portray the inherent naivety of
incidental music. As they assemble their sixteen sonic
vignettes, ephemeral soundtracks of life, in just forty
minutes, keeping the focus on the essential elements,
they discard everything else. What the listener is left
with is unassuming melodies, sharp sonic imagery and
soothing ambiences. Hidden along the way are some stunning
compositions. The album opens with the impressive Optigan,
and after a short interlude, Marionette 59 Sec Sting
and Carousel establish once and for all the
space within which this album evolves, but it is with
Marionette and Departure Lounge that
Harmonic 33 create some of their most emotionally intense
and evocative moments, while Planet 54 sees
the pair reaching a level of musical perfection most
can only dream of. Delicate, fragile, and yet impressively
effective, this track is stripped down to its bear essentials.
An electric piano, a simple melody and almost nothing
else.
Music For Film, Television & Radio Vol. 1
is filled with snapshot references, and the music appears
interestingly familiar, yet totally fresh, all the way
through. Not only do Pritchard and Brinkworth manage
to reproduce the sound scope associated with library
music, but they recreate the atmospheric structure of
such art with precision, injecting textures and depth
to their compositions to create one hell of an enchanting
album.
4.6/5 |
