ERIC GLICK RIEMAN: In My Mind, Her Image Was Reversed (Accretions Records)

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Posted on Sep 29th 2011 01:26 am

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Eric Glick Rieman: In My Mind, Her Image Was Reversed

ERIC GLICK RIEMAN
In My Mind, Her Image Was Reversed
ALP053CD
Accretions Records 2011
06 Tracks. 56mins15secs

Berkley, CA-based experimental musician Eric Glick Rieman works with a specially adapted Rhodes electric piano, which has had its cover removed to expose the tines and transistors which are key to the instrument’s sound so he can operate them directly with his hands, mallets or anything else he can think off. Additionally, the instrument is fitted with extended sound boards upon which are placed zinc rods, which can be bowed or hit. A keen improviser, Glick Rieman released his first album of prepared electric piano, Ten To The Googolplex, on Accretions ten years ago, and went on to form the DalabaFrithGlickRiemanKihlstedt quartet two years later. His second solo effort, Lung Tree, was published on ReR in 2005. In My Mind, Her Image Was Reversed follows Eric Glick Rieman’s Trilogy From The Outside set of releases, published on Water Goes Into Air last year and sees him return to Accretions.

Recorded entirely with a prepared Rhodes 73 Stage Piano in the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico, this album expends greatly on the standard aspect of the instrument by introducing an almost infinite palette of sounds and noises, from miniature percussive tones and loops to brushed paper, fingers hitting keys or coarse sonic components. While possibly an interesting visual addition to a live performance, what exactly triggers these sounds or how they actually materialise is pretty irrelevant to the resulting soundtrack here. Of course, the use of a particular type of washer or a very specific type of quartz, as is the case here, may be intrinsic to a singular sound or texture, but the fabric of these improvisation is so rich and enchanting that it become the sole aspect worthy of attention.

Glick Rieman creates here a series of intricate structures which revolve around miniature sonic formations and extremely delicate fragments of melody. These appear to forever cluster into minimalist configurations and never settle for very long. In the space of just a few minutes, Glick Rieman manages to create a dreamy world and make it develop and flourish before moving on, starting from scratch again. These are not necessarily entirely disconnected from each other however. The particles of texture and music which form much of the epic twenty-minute Reiterated, Opinion Changes Meaning are echoed on the delicate flowing theme of the title track further down, while What’s Said, Reinterpreted By Future Hearers and Reinventing Belief share a very similar sense of empty space and how their respective components are placed in relation to it, and, as The Past, Aerated opens, the machine-like shuffle of its opening sequence appears to expend on the enigmatic soundscape heard on Transmigrating Flock Of Beliefs.

By adding self-referenced points, Eric Glick Rieman blurs the overall outlines of these six improvisations and confuses his audience enough to give this record a dreamy feel. Music often takes a back step here as he focuses on creating convincing soundscapes, but elements of melody regularly bubble up to the surface to remind the listener that Glick Rieman is before all a musician, albeit one with a very singular vision.

4.2/5

Eric Glick Rieman (MySpace) | Accretions Records

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