Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Dots Review

Ben Gwilliam/Jason Zeh - Brombron 16: Dots (Korm Plastics)

For Dots, part of the collaborative Brombron project, tape composer Jason Zeh and sound artist Ben Gwilliam used sounds from prepared tape, machinery and 'other magnetic sourcing including posting, freezing, and puncturing tape.' Over 45 minutes there is a lot of silence, punctuated by clicks, scrapes and hiss, all muffled and opaque. A bass drone flickers and is disrupted by static, warbles and collapses. At one point a choir holds a note, becoming a gorgeous angelic 'Ahh', and mixes with an industrial cicada-like whine. They conclude with a dense, grey drone, like Thomas Koner or Francisco Lopez. There are moments of attractiveness amid these scenes but little to make sense of, and why they've been put together like this is anyone's guess.

Joshua Meggitt

No comments:

Post a Comment