|
degrees
- Bachelors
of Music in Performance (Music Composition)
December 1998 Southwest Texas State University
- Masters
of Music in Performance (Music Composition)
May 2001 Southwest Texas State University
- Working
Towards PhD in Composition
- University
of Aberdeen, Scotland
awards
- 2004
Full Scholarship for PhD, University of Aberdeen
2006 Research Grant, Dept. of Research and Commercialization,
UoA
2006 US Speaking Tour Funded by Department of Music,
UoA
2006 PRS ATOM Award for New Music
- 2007
GAVAA (Grays Aberdeen Visual Arts Award)
- 2008
CPD Research Grant, Scottish Arts Council
- 2008
STEIM Residency
reviews
tripartite
collision/feb 23rd (2006) [released on state sanctioned
records]
SSRCD002
Bill Thompson
‘Tripartite Collision’
[State Sanctioned Recordings]
------------------------------------------------------------------
Resonance
Magazine Issue 53: Resonancemag.com
Only a handful
of current sonic pioneers-Animal Collective, Wolf Eyes,
Iannis Xenakis-really explore the possibilities of isolated
frequencies and their effect (usually an adverse one)
on listeners. On Tripartite Collision, Bill Thompson
crafts a difficult sound painting of radio buzzes, subharmonic
frequencies, digital whistling, and relentless, unmitigated
sine waves that recalls both underground noise nerds and
scientists who treat sound as a medium. However, this
album elicits less of a listening experience than a physical
reaction, with certain tones generating headaches and
eye twitches, and others inspiring euphoric new sensations
in body parts that usually have no relationship with sound.
The question could be asked: Does Thompson create music
or alien massages? Ross Simonini
Furthernoise
Bill Thompson is
a former guitarist now moving in electro-acoustic improvisation
circles, whose sound falls somewhere between Keith Rowe
and the more ambient Arcane Device. Although his early
professional career was with a number of ensembles in
Austin, Texas, he moved to Scotland in 2004 to study with
Pete Stollery. Since then, he has been active in a number
of different aspects of the Scottish experimental music
scene (check out the links from around Scotland on his
web site). He has a number of releases on various mp3
and CD-r labels, and Tripartite Collision is the second
release on a new label, State Sanctioned Records, released
in an edition of 200.
The title track sets up a deep
drone, with jerky, skittering short bursts, and a lead
voice composed from quick static movements and feedback
squalls. He adds another, harsher drone at the top, very
raw sounding. The occasional voice in the mix recalls
short waves. It eventually gives way to a rich, full drone,
with a gradual elimination of all but the smallest events
that might get in the way of a full appreciation.
The opening sound of Feb'23rd is
voices, treated until they sound almost like sea birds,
slowly evolving into a sound mass where the opening sounds
are fast moving, almost a melody. I get a lot of avian
and reptilian imagery, but a lot of serenity as well.
Heavily manipulated voices appear from nowhere, the first
sound that doesn't sound completely electronic in origin.
After a long, very quiet section in the middle, a slow
pulse, repeating about every eight seconds, becomes the
first new layer, and is soon joined by another, even slower
oscillation. The piece builds to a final high point around
after nearly a half hour, then slowly fades away. Thompson
has a video of a live performance of the piece on his
web site, which is not the same performance as the one
on the CD.
Thompson shares with Arcane Device
a way to use a raw electronic sound without having it
sound harsh. He sets a number of sounds into motion with
different rates of change, and slowly evolves the texture
over the course of the two fairly lengthy pieces. Tripartite
Collision successfully treads a middle ground between
ambience and noise and is an excellent set of analog electronic
drones.
Review
by Caleb Deuprealeb
De
Sound323
The
second release on this promising UK label features two
extended pieces by Bill Thompson, a former jazz guitarist
whose battle with tendonitis forced him to shift his focus
to sound art and minimalist composition, with interesting
results. He has spent the past ten years working in the
improvised electronic sound scene, mainly in Austin, Texas
(where he regularly performs with the GATES Ensemble)
and Aberdeen, Scotland (Mickel Mass), using everything
from prepared guitar, cd mixers, laptop, radio, DIY circuit-bent
devices, and other noise-making devices to create mesmerizing
drone epics driven by damaged electronics and lo-fi noise.
The first piece, the title track, features a subdued hypno-bass
pulse that gradually becomes enveloped in fried noise
snippets, ring-modulator sounds, glitch electronics, and
a looming cloud of electrodrone fog. The piece becomes
thick (but not dense) with overmodulated and processed
tones that interact in harmonic fashion with the bass
pulse that eventually slows to more of a dark, throbbing
drone. The second piece, "Feb'23rd," takes over
half an hour to unfold and is an evolving collage of small
audio files traded over the web with members of Edinburgh's
FOUND ensemble. The musicians traded the audio snippets,
altering them with each pass, and the final pieces were
assembled into this exotic-sounding tapestry of unidentifiable
noises, hums, and field recording snippets. The defiled
audio bits play out over a bed of droning, shimmering
harmonic feedback and hum, like a processed stream of
alien audio consciousness speeding by in clouds of soothing
drone. As with all SSR releases, this one is limited to
200 copies in understated but spiffy pressboard sleeves.
Nice,
and worth hearing.
The
One True Dead Angel:
The second
release on this promising UK label features two extended
pieces by Bill Thompson, a former jazz guitarist whose
battle with tendonitis forced him to shift his focus to
sound art and minimalist composition, with interesting
results. He has spent the past ten years working in the
improvised electronic sound scene, mainly in Austin, Texas
(where he regularly performs with the GATES Ensemble)
and Aberdeen, Scotland (Mickel Mass), using everything
from prepared guitar, cd mixers, laptop, radio, DIY circuit-bent
devices, and other noise-making devices to create mesmerizing
drone epics driven by damaged electronics and lo-fi noise.
The first piece, the title track, features a subdued hypno-bass
pulse that gradually becomes enveloped in fried noise
snippets, ring-modulator sounds, glitch electronics, and
a looming cloud of electrodrone fog. The piece becomes
thick (but not dense) with overmodulated and processed
tones that interact in harmonic fashion with the bass
pulse that eventually slows to more of a dark, throbbing
drone. The second piece, "Feb'23rd," takes over
half an hour to unfold and is an evolving collage of small
audio files traded over the web with members of Edinburgh's
FOUND ensemble. The musicians traded the audio snippets,
altering them with each pass, and the final pieces were
assembled into this exotic-sounding tapestry of unidentifiable
noises, hums, and field recording snippets. The defiled
audio bits play out over a bed of droning, shimmering
harmonic feedback and hum, like a processed stream of
alien audio consciousness speeding by in clouds of soothing
drone. As with all SSR releases, this one is limited to
200 copies in understated but spiffy pressboard sleeves.
Nice, and worth hearing.
Free
Noise:
Second
great release from home grown label belonging to Rob Hart
aka Eaten By Children. Scotland based Thompson has been
involved in 'sonic art' for ten years and has seen the
inside of the BBC, Resonance FM and various. Here two
contrasting live pieces demonstrate the slow build technique,
similar to some of Hart's work. The title track running
in at 11.52 left me wanting more even though it is almost
entirely made up of a (quality) underlying sub bass drone
and a few contemplative high and mid range fizzes. The
quality of the audio is something that is paramount here
and the material contrasts with examples in the similar
vein, which are in their plenty. I got more in the second
track but this time a longer (32.19) and even more introspective,
especially after a grand first phase of 17 minutes, leaving
it on to attend to a visit from my mother found it as
a background conducive to chat even though on the surface
slightly ominous and unsettling. Stoners will like this
(after your mother's gone!) as there's plenty of imagination
and colour after the central section; a single, wavering
drone of some six minutes where time disappears. So not
to worry you pacey types (!) as (uber-gradually) sizzly,
meditative friends join in again to the end warp-out,
leaving ( in the silence which is now anything but, as
a passing car freaks out my state) an awareness of the
live molecules in everything...
Vital:
Perhaps
I missed out on Bill Thompson somewhere along the line,
but he has had releases on Spectral House, Bremsstrahlung
and Autueach othermn Records, but yet this is my first
encounter with his work. Originally Thompson was an aspiring
jazz guitarist, but thought that composing was perhaps
of more interest. He spends his time in Austin, Texas
and Aberdeen, Scotland and in his work as an improviser
he uses prepared guitar, CD mixers, laptop, radio, found
objects and circuit-bent devices.
On this
release two pieces, but if you didn't know, it would hard
to hear, since they fade over into each other and might
as well be one single piece. The title piece was created
in 2005 as part of the See/Hear event in Inverurie in
Scotland starts out with a low end bass hum, and some
pitched crackles, but as the piece evolves more mid range
sounds come in like a swirling dervish and makes a very
fine piece of microsound. Very lush and ambient but also
quite engaging.
In the
second piece, 'Feb'23rd', Thompson composes a piece made
out of small audio files made by the musicians of the
Found Ensemble from Edinburgh. These pieces were traded
over the web, and everybody altered whatever he or she
thought was necessary.
In the
end Thompson created this piece of music, which is, as
said, quite similar to the first piece, but much longer.
Thompson stretches out the material to quite an extend,
and lets all the sound in there 'breath'. They slowly
shift back and forth, going out of sync and certainly
in the second part of the piece things turn quite microsound-ambient-glitch
(you don't need to call like that if the term shocks you)
in the best Taylor Deupree tradition.
semtex
magazine:
State Sanctioned Records
is a rather new English label focusing on unorthodox music.
Its second release is one by Bill Thompson, a Texan composer
and sound artist who migrated to Scotland. Among the instruments
used in his pieces prepared guitar, radio transmitters,
laptop, circuit-bend devices and found objects can be
traced. The two tracks on the record can be situated in
the field of electro acoustic improvisation; past collaborations
with an artist like Keith Rowe are not accidental.
Tripartite Collision,
the 11-minute opener of the album, was first premiered
at the Sea/Hear event in Scotland. It starts out with
a buzzing sub-bass tone where gradually an eclectic accumulation
of noise, rustling and ultrasonic noises are added. In
the middle of the piece the sub-bass pines away, clearing
the way to the fizz and the fuzz, to sneak back in some
minutes later and ending the piece solitary.
Feb'23rd came about by
exchanging and treating small audio-files with the Scottish
FOUND ensemble and Bill Thompson crystallized the piece
in its definite form. Lasting over half an hour it has
a slowly continuing structure of mysteriously hovering
digital fuzz, rattlesnake resembling noises and other
pit pat. Amidst Feb’23rd a ghostly harmonic tone horses
around with silence, a few moments later the piece builds
itself back up again.
Both pieces have a delicate
and mesmeric feel and float between electro-acoustic improvisation
and fine-drawn ambient. The record comes in a carefully
edited rectangular cardboard and is limited to 200 pieces.
Good stuff.
Touching
Extremes:
Excellent music from Bill
Thompson, who started as a jazz guitarist but had to give
up due to tendonitis; with all due respect, looks like
the world of minimal electroacoustic music has gained
from Thompson's loss. The two tracks presented here were
conceived according to completely different settings and
parameters. The title track is a droning minefield to
be crossed with all aerials up, but indeed nothing explodes;
it's a looming mass of subharmonics and flanged frequencies
spiced by penetrating highs that rapidly catches our attention
and, as soon as our brain adapts to its components, fades
to black in all its galvanizing malevolence. "Feb'23rd"
is a collaboration between Thompson and Edinburgh's Found
Ensemble, the parts exchanging sound files via internet
and setting their own modifications at work during the
process. Clocking in at over 32 minutes, the piece offers
more space for the ideas to evolve and achieve their self-determination.
What sounds like vocal radioactivity is gradually replaced
by protuberant discharges and hollow soulless emissions
in a sort of heavenward invocation by a malfunctioning
robot. Clouds of alluring resonances put our mind in solitary
confinement for several minutes, only to be complemented
by unhurried series of electronic waves and spiraliform
networks that recall Nurse With Wound's "Soliloquy
for Lilith". It's the most fascinating section of
an overall brilliant record.
Heathen
Harvest:
With this release, London's
"State Sanctioned Records" (Label of Rob Hart
from Noise-mongers Eaten By Children) releases its second
album. The first being Eaten By Children's very own "Sword
Swallower's Grave". Like its predecessor, this album
is also limited to just 200 copies, this one being copy
68/200.
Bill has written both
of these tracks for local exhibitions in his native Aberdeen,
and according to the label page, he produces "prepared
guitar, digital cd mixers, laptop, radio, and digital/analogue
synthesizers, as well as found objects and DIY circuit-bent
devices.". "Tripartite Collision", in its
beautiful Cellulite cover, complete with etch-a-sketch
scribbling, claims to be an Intense but Delicate journey,
and if it's anything like the SSR release before it, it
probably shouldn't be played in public. Ever.
It does in fact open with
some intricate but impressing Power Electronics, the first
few minutes of Tripartite Collision, are Pulsating loops
of Electronic Bass, pretty low in the mix, as my speakers
are on loud, and this is about half the volume it should
be. I expect to find myself peeling myself off the wall
any minute now. Actually a nice hypnotic track, and the
Stoners amongst you will have a field day. The track goes
into that bizare "Ambient Noise" territory,
towards the end, and fuck the critics, It's excellent.
The way it is done, the way the pulses and vibrations
change and compliment each other, before turning into
an Ambient nightmare is just incredible. On paper, this
kind of sound is plain and dreary, but the underlying
textures here just rewrite the way I view it. A track
I will no doubt listen to again, and again.
At shortly over half an
hour in length, "Feb'23rd" is dangerously close
to becoming a laughing number, I never advise Ambient
artists to exceed this point, unless the offering is very
rich and original in sound. This track is more Vibrant,
louder, more confident. Nothing happens as frantically,
or as quickly, but the slow build ups leave the listener
enough independence and space to reflect in their own
time. Go downstairs. Make a Coffee. Come back, induce
a trance-like state. This album won't hurt you. It will
endear, comfort, and protect you as you slip into a lucid
moment. If you want to simply listen to it, you can find
yourself painting a portrait with many colours, the sound
could be one of a million things, from an Icy morning
trying to banish the Sun, to a Construction Site underground,
boring into your skull.
It is with much pride
and happiness, that after listening to this album, I have
gone from expecting an interesting and chaotic mixture
of Noise, to actually hearing and bookmarking this track
as one of the best new artists of 2006. Not just that,
but based on the strength of this, I urge every single
reader of HH to visit the State Sanctioned website. This
won't ever go down as an album to inspire artists, but
for the second release of a brand new, independant, and
obscure label, this will lift the veil right off the head,
and quite possibly propel SSR into a much bigger, much
more extreme world. They sure as hell deserve it. As does
Bill Thompson.
The best thing to come
out of Scotland since William Wallace? Or even Border
Biscuits? You Decide. I know my answer.
of
memory and dreams (2006) [released on Seven Things]
------------------------------------------------------------------
Touching
Extremes:
BILL THOMPSON - “…of memory
and dreams” (7hings)
Scarce advertising kills
excellent music. That's why I don't excessively love downloadable
releases, besides living in a commodity deprived area
(no broadband internet). If the kind soul that belongs
to “the artist also known as Professor LoFi” hadn't suggested
him to send me this on a CDR, I'd have probably missed
a great recording. Because this is great, no questions
about it. Lasting just over half an hour, “...of memory
and dreams” was commissioned by, and realized for, 7hings
in the occasion of the 2007's Huddersfield's Contemporary
Music Festival. As the author himself writes, this performance
“blurs the boundaries between composition, improvisation
and indeterminacy”. Yet, somehow it appears like a preconceived
score, each element masterfully placed in a chain of happenings
whose common denominator is something that could only
be described as “vital flow”. With a few deviations, even
less discharges and a mumbling-if-buzzing flux that affirms
its gripping beauty in the transcendental final section
of the piece, Thompson shows new alternatives to post
Keith Rowe-ism, defining the limits of drone-based soundscaping
with a pronounced tendency to implosion, withdrawing himself
in the closet of the untold while caressing our neural
apparatus with some of the most fascinating sounds that
a man can muster for a solo exhibition. And he also managed
to fit a few welcome birdsongs in there. Scintillating,
bright-minded, helplessly questioning sound analysis functioning
as therapy against the mental intumescences that daily
stupidity systematically generates. After the remarkable
“Tripartite Collision” on State Sanctioned, this outing
confirms that this gentleman is for real, as one looks
forward to discover what's boiling in his future's pot.
Furthernoise
of memory and dreams
There is a trajectory that many
improvised electro acoustic performances reach, which
unique in every given context, often manage to transport
you to a Zen like point where you become one with the
signal and phase in and out of listening to the development
of structure or dynamic of the work. This is not a comment
on the given quality of a piece, rather it's ability to
loll you into the necessary transcendental state in which
to appreciate it. This is no more so than in Bill Thompsons
recent work Of Memory and Dreams where tertiary structural
form meet processed drones in a 32 minute piece, which
is every bit as sonically suggestive as it's title.
Of the three key elements of processed
signals, field recordings and frequency manipulation,
it is the collaging of more distinct found field sound
that gives this recording a certain audio visual quality.
It places you within the mix, rather than on it's periphery
and with excellent stereo imaging, it's hard not to let
your senses travel along on this topographical soundscape.
Having said that it is not always an easy listen but as
a trait Thompson has always left that to others, preferring
to reward the challenge with a sense of listener accomplishment.
You really do have to put the time aside to listen to
this and as a single track, it is difficult to pause and
come back if you want the experience of the full journey.
No stranger to the pages of Furthernoise,
Bill has been composing and performing as a sound artist
for over ten years and Of Memory and Dreams demonstrates
him honing his sound to completeness. While certain northern
European noise influences are perceptible, Bill Thompson
retains an indisputable originality in his sound that
will enthuse many interested in this genre.
Review by Roger Mills
The
One True Dead Angel:
of memory and
dreams
Enigmatic sound-sculptor Bill Thompson
brings on the drone (and some eccentric noises) in this
lengthy single track available by download only from UK
label Seven Things. Approximately thirty minutes in length,
the piece was commissioned by the label for their set
in the 2007 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival,
and features Thompson live using a combination of found
objects, field recordings, electronic gadgets (including
several electronic toothbrushes generously donated by
AMM guitarist Keith Rowe just before playing; I defy anyone
to tell me where they actually appear in the piece), a
laptop, bent circuitry, and other enigmatic resources.
The result is an ever-developing stretch of drone, cyclonic
noise, and jumbled sounds, the audio equivalent of a swarm
of tornadoes appearing far on the horizon and approaching
steadily, inexorably, leaving a trail of chaos and dissolution
in their wake. There's a heavy drone quotient courtesy
of a high-pitching cycling drone that never really disappears
(although it does recede into the background at times
and is occasionally drowned out by other noises), and
at times is the most prominent sound source, but there
are also cryptic noises and sound textures. The tail end
of the piece, in fact, is almost all drone with intermittent
noises for sonic flavoring, and that drone is a good one.
This is not a "heavy" noise piece -- it gets
loud at times, yes, but it's less about audio terrorism
than it is about exploring different sound textures within
the confines of a deep drone -- but it's definitely engaging,
despite the length. It's fitting that some of the materials
came from Keith Rowe, because this is comparable in style
and texture to some of the more freeform work of AMM.
Excellent work, and certainly worth the minimal cost of
the download. (The site also makes available a free sample
and an interview with Thompson, which are worth checking
out for those who may still be undecided.)
GAZ-ETA
of memory and dreams
I haven't got a clue what composer/sound-artist
Bill Thompson uses to produce the sound given off on "...Of
Memory and Dreams". Could it be a broken CD that
is fed through a laptop or perhaps prepared guitar that
is amplified and processed through his home-made software?
No matter, the half hour work begins with an elongated,
high-pitched sound. This is one of these extreme high-pitches
that makes the listeners grab their ears for relief, especially
after more than ten minutes have gone by. All the while,
that sound still persists. Past the ten minute mark, the
pitch alters slightly. Then, the sound gets somewhat fatter.
At the twenty minute point, the sound becomes more subdued.
It then takes a gentle tumble downwards in intensity,
while maintaining more or less the same speed. Certainly
a very challenging listening session but one that pays
off dividends during repeated listening sessions.
- Tom Sekowski
august/september:
with brent fariss (2006) [released on spectral house]
"BRENT
FARISS & BILL THOMPSON - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER (CD by Spectral
House)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Gaz-Eta:
Working with
new music ensembles such as ThomFariCraw, Austin New Music
Co-op, Araxia Trio, and Gates Ensemble, American composer
Brent Fariss has now joined forces with sound artist/composer
Bill Thompson to produce a massive homage to the softer
side of the drone. Made up of two elongated pieces [each
one named after a summer month], the duo moves in creaky
and mysterious ways to give us one of the more satisfying
records of this year already. Polarizing the gritty elements
with the more hushed ones, the pieces move between the
tranquil to the more disturbing, head-shaking turns. Heavy
electronic element is present throughout but what's more
pleasing is the pacing these two adhere to. Neither rushed,
nor done in a turtle's pace; their communal sound is that
of mid tempo. Field recordings are used heavily as well.
"August" features a thick plethora of crickets
playing an off-tune melody. As the chorus grows weaker,
it turns in on itself into a machine-like sound that permeates
most of the remainder of the piece. Not unlike "August",
"September" follows through with sounds of horse
hoofs hitting the ground, amplified insect sounds and
a bunch of animal sounds that I can't quite pinpoint.
Over time, very slowly, metallic buzzing emerges out of
nowhere. These fly around the stereo speakers from left
to right and back again. Rougher, cricket-like sounds
pop out. They are then accompanied by soft-footsteps-in-the-snow
sounds. Both pieces are finished before you can fully
immerse yourself in their glow. Time plays a secondary
role as the mind is fooled by so many elements happening
within each piece all at once. Elements of white noise,
prepared guitars, laptops, synths and knob tweakings are
evident. All of these are pure sounds of finding your
own way through field of experimental sound. Bravo!
- Tom Sekowski
Vital:
This is my first
encounter with both Spectral House as well as Brent Fariss
and Bill Thompson. The first plays 'prepared contrabass,
electronics, field recordings' and Thompson plays 'electronics,
amplified percussion and field recordings'. Both studied
composition at Texas State University in the mid 90s,
and they cross lines of modern composition, electronics,
noise and free improvisation. As far as i understand both
pieces on this release were commissioned by an arts organization
to be played live but the result were thus nice that they
decided to go into the studied to do a full, good studio
recording of it. Rightly so, because this is music that
deserves to be heard. In 'August' things start at the
long drone end, with a wall of electronics, but gradually
over the course of this piece, things move towards letting
the instruments be heard as such and even ends with a
desolate bowed string. The second piece, 'September' works
along less well defined lines, and is more an open ended
collage form piece of music, moving through various textures,
both electronically and acoustically. Both pieces are
great works from the world where composing and improvising
meet up. No doubt we'll be hearing more from them. (FdW)
Address: http://www.spectralhouse.com"
untitled
(mcalpine) (2005) [released and available for download
on bremsstrahlung records]
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Chance
favors the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur
"This
work of stunning beauty presents itself more like a masterwork
of compositional restraint and focused exploration of
timbre than the enhanced field recording it is. Thompson's
prepared mind allowed him to capture one of the most moving
pieces of sound you are likely to experience this year.
It must be heard to be believed…"
Kenji
Siratori
"Bill
Thompson exterminates hunting for the grotesque WEB of
a
chemical anthropoid brain universe of the terror fear
cytoplasm that
jointed to the insanity medium of the hyperreal HIV scanners
gene-dub of the corpse city." - Kenji Siratori,
author of Blood Electric
liminal
passage
"...These fascinating
pieces from the early Spanish school were followed by
the first of the evening's’electroacoustic works, Bill
Thompson’s Liminal Passage. In this piece and later too
in Claire Singer’s a’fàs soilleir I was reminded
of some of Ligeti’s compositions where rhythm and melody
have largely been purged from music in order for the attention
to be concentrated instead on constantly evolving shades
of harmonic colour. It has to be said of course that this
is solely my personal reaction to the music and it is
possible that Ligeti’s music was the last thing on the
minds of either composer. Interestingly enough, in Bill
Thompson’s piece in particular, rhythm had not really
been abolished at all. The clashing of different sound
wave patterns created a throbbing of rhythm that ran all
through this music. The dimming of the lights in the Chapel
for this performance concentrated the mind on the sounds
alone and this was entirely beneficial for this piece."
University of Aberdeen Music Review 2006
resonare/in
absentia
"... Composer Bill
Thompson directed us to the display of Greek pottery in
a glass case in that section of the Marischal College
Museum, which is on the right hand side on approach to
the Picture Gallery. Thompson had been permitted to place
microphones against or inside the exhibits to record the
ambient sounds coming from the jars at a very high level
of recording. The composer's input to these sounds seemed
to have been comparatively minimal. This in itself was
interesting, since it raised the question of how much
alteration had been applied to the generic sound sources
by the other six composer/performers whose work we heard
on Thursday." University of Aberdeen Music Review
2005
------------------------------------------------------------------
(with)
gates
The Gates
Ensemble is an electro-acoustic ensemble formed in September
2001 to realize the piece Gates, for which the ensemble
was eventually named. The piece involved free improvisation
within the context of strict entrance and exit times.
Since its inception, Gates has had a somewhat fluid membership.
As of the time of this recording, Gates consisted of Brent
Fariss, Jacob Green, Holland Hopson, Bill Thompson, Josh
Ronsen, and Travis Weller. Past members have included
David Drew, Afshar Kharat, Clark Crawford, and others.
"...fluent and imaginative,
sustained electronic drones and whines weaving among dramatic
instrumental clusters." - The Wire
"...these six improvisers
are great musicians who are able to produce some cohesive
music in their explorations of pure sound." - Vital
Weekly
------------------------------------------------------------------
(with)
Mickel Mass
"Finally we turn
to Lost Conversations, a far more experimental, free-form
collection that features the talents of Mike Napier, Andy
Da Kipp, Duncan Hart, Bill Thompson, and Alan Davidson,
who together have created some wonderfully abstract soundscapes,
full of raindrop melodies and creaking electronics. Half-fool
Optimist demonstrates this blend of acoustic and electronics
perfectly, the piece slowly turning to chaos and disorder
before Lost Conversation repeats the trick, the softly
picked guitar and soothing cello being slowly engulfed
by a swarm of electronic insects. On For Lol (A Doffing
Of The Cap), I presume that would be Lol Coxhill, the
formula is reversed as some free-jazz noise is slowly
lightened by a drifting cloud of echoed piano. The best,
however, is saved until last with a 40 minute live improvisation
recorded at The Tunnels (Aberdeen), which shows the band
in fine form, with chattering electronics and acoustic
melodies being infused into a cello led drone, that breaks
down into free noise, before the band get seriously psychedelic
with some deep-space explorations that have a west-coast
feel to them. Finally the stutter of the electronics take
over again as the piece disintegrates with a flurry of
white noise and feedback sounding like a long-lost kraut
rock classic." (Simon Lewis)
------------------------------------------------------------------
(with)
Brekekekexkoaxkoax
BREKEKEKEXKOAXKOAX - We used to
be such good friends (Hushroom)
Touching
Extremes:
This impossibly named collective
- founded in 1996 - recognizes its leader in Josh Ronsen,
a Texas-based sound and mail artist who also happens to
be an active force in the outflow of unadulterated music
and writing (he publishes an online webzine, Monk Mink
Pink Punk, and an email newsletter, Austinnitus). The
record contains about 73 minutes of music divided in four
tracks. "Haifa Hi-Fi" features Ronsen on electric
guitar and clarinet, Jacob Green on oboe, organ, "misc
instr" and electronics, Glen Nuckolls on acoustic
guitar, banjo and violin and Genevieve Walsh on flute
and snare drum. It's pure improvisation, that which many
are convinced to be playing but don't even get close:
approximate shapes, detuned strings and unpretentious
approaches to a collective imagination that lasts the
space of a moment allow the music to fluctuate in search
of a definition that never materializes. The four parties
look for critical tresholds and hidden places, from which
they seem to observe their reciprocal self-response to
the complete lack of a so-called "style". Moments
exist when the creature tries to spread the wings and
learn to fly without success, due to an undescribable
frailty that is also the true, essential beauty of the
piece. "Figure or failure II" is a short solo
work for turntable, voice, electronics and computer -
all by Ronsen - boiling with discreet electronic possibilities
and subterranean interferences under a fixed droning hum
that stabilizes the matter in an engrossing self-replicating
cycle, unfortunately ending too soon. "Tuesday on
Sunday" is a quartet of electronics, oboe/organ,
electric guitar and computer (respectively by Vanessa
Arn, Green, Ronsen and Bill Thompson). Uncertain guitar
arpeggios nourish a growingly tense layering of acute
dissonant frequencies that generate a distressing sense
of unexpected and untold; the repetition of selected patterns
renders the music a little more permanent in memory, but
the feeling remains one of decay and forgetfulness, reinforced
by a pretty murky equalization, until the whole fuses
into a final ejaculation of stridency. "For I.D.
II" is a solo for bowed bass guitar that closes the
show with the most frictional music of the whole CD, a
roaring upheaval of granular harmonics and harsh resonances
accompanying a bad trip through minimal hopelessness.
Outer
Space Gamelan
"...the four players
take the time to actually pay attention to what the other
is playing and meditate on it good n' long until they
decide to sneak in with their own contribution..."
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