Abstraction
is, or so it seems, a vaster concept than it was ever
humanly possible to imagine, but also one extremely difficult
for artists to grasp fully as boundaries are constantly
pushed further, goal posts are moved, definitions are
altered, ruled are only sketched to be infringed. Many
painters, writers or musicians have tried too hard to
embrace the concept of abstraction only to create empty
work of art, devoid of the only element that gives it
a purpose: emotion. Without emotion, abstract art means
nothing, is nothing, brings nothing.
For four years now, Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder have
been shaping their music into highly dense and conceptual
forms, without losing sight of its emotional character.
With each new release, Twine have developed their constructions
further, experimented with sounds and ambiences and incorporated
new elements. The rich soundscapes encountered on Recorder
demonstrate the pair’s capacity to perfectly balance the
intangible elements of their music with more human aspects.
The electronic makeup is only a mean to generate intense
organic atmospheres, and is in no way a point in itself.
It is perhaps to emphasise this fact that the album opens
with the guitar-led None Some Silver. If statics
and clicks seem to dominate at first, the textural components,
namely cyclic variations ranging from pure to distorted
guitars, placed in the forefront contribute to a somewhat
opulent expressionist moment. More traditionalist in its
electronic settings, the rest of the album doesn’t however
greatly depart from the approach adopted here. The guitars
are simply replaced by a variety of processed found sounds,
vocal interactions and other sonic oddities, while clicks
flirt with more conventional types of percussions. More
deconstructed, Cign introduces a harsher musical
landscape in the shape of an extremely prominent percussive
section, while subtle waves develop in the background,
before being projected into a more evident position in
Fine Music. This continuous change of focal point
is one of the constant of Twine’s music. Here perhaps
enhanced even more, it surprisingly gives Recorder
an extremely consistent feel. If Player Piano
or Factor are, in appearance at least, more subdued
and straightforward, Malcolm and Mossholder equally influence
their sonic models all along this record to expand their
compositions in similar ways. The most impressive moment
of this album is to be found on the closing There
Is No One Else. Arguably one of the most melancholic
moments heard on an electronic record for a while, the
pure approach to sound and the complex positioning resulting
is at once deeply poetic.
Recorder is by all means an absolute masterpiece,
achieving more than any of Twine’s previous albums the
synergy between abstraction and emotion. Already on a
par with the likes of Autechre, Twine are slowly making
their own mark on the electronic world.
5/5 |
