Rhian Sheehan

I have no idea of Sheehan's standing in the local electronica community, I am sure some may pass this album off as a bit light -- but I've always had a soft spot for his interesting sonic landscapes which seem to me to owe an intellectual (not necessarily a musical) debt to Brian Eno's albums such as Music for Films, Music for Airports and his intelligent ambient output in the Seventies. This new album is even more directly in that lineage, and these 14 (mostly short) short tracks are in the manner of music for imaginary films or refer to internal states rather than invoking geographical locations. From a guy who used to make people dance, in a cosmic and swooning style, rather than a boogie woogie way, to someone who inspires us to stand perfectly still and, sway gently. That's the transition Wellington electronica producer and musician Rhian Sheehan makes on his third album, Standing In Silence. Divided into parts 1 to 14 it plays out more like an artwork than an album. Initially, it might come across as idle drifts and ambient meanderings but on sucessive listens some magical charms are revealed, like found sounds from around the world (including an airport announcement on 8), and most cleverly, his daughter's music box. Sheehan uses a lot of guitar this time round, played by Jeff Boyle from sonic instrumentalists Jakob, but it is virtually impossible to pick out a single strum, pluck or riff. The glitchy pitter patter of 2 has a playful, whimsy to it, and 3 conjures up that deliciously delirious state you wake up in after falling asleep in the late afternoon sun. The first signs of a more staunch and cutting sound comes in 5, with heavy chinking bells; then 6 gives way to gentle glitches, chimes, and the first beats are ignited; and 8 erupts into a maelstrom of noise. But from then on the album settles back into a more even-tempered mood, with swooning strings, unravelling drones, and 12 brings together melancholic piano, eerie synth, and cheeping birds. This is an album for fans of Sigur Ros or Boards of Canada. And, hate to disagree with its creator, but not so much music to stand in silence to, more like music to laze in a hammock to. Or, perhaps to lounge on a comfy couch with as it devours and envelops you.

Rhian Sheehan - Standing in Silence


Label: loop
Catalog#: lp050
Country: New Zeland
Released: Feb 2009
Genre: Ambient
Style: Electro-acoustic

Tracklist:

Enjoy..!

1 Standing In Silence Part 1
2 Standing In Silence Part 2
3 Standing In Silence Part 3
4 Standing In Silence Part 4
5 Standing In Silence Part 5
6 Standing In Silence Part 6
7 Standing In Silence Part 7
8 Standing In Silence Part 8
9 Standing In Silence Part 9
10 Standing In Silence Part 10
11 Standing In Silence Part 11
12 Standing In Silence Part 12
13 Standing In Silence Part 13
14 Standing In Silence Part 14

Area C

Charmed Birds Against Sorcery" is the third studio album by New England-based musician Erik Carlson, and constitutes a startling development in his sound. The first Area C record, 2006's "Traffics + Discoveries," was a small marvel of whirring loops sourced primarily from processed guitars. Last year's "Haunt," Carlson's second record for Last Visible Dog, was a different affair entirely, investigating the provocative drone capabilites of farfisa organs. The compositions which constitute "Charmed Birds..." develop and, often, transcend the motifs found on these prior albums, with Carlson revealing an astonishingly refined and singular approach to guitar-based composition. Soundwise, the album recalls more the crystalline, kaleidoscopic webworks of the first Area C record than the ragged organ workouts of "Haunt." Glacial harmonics drift in and out of each channel, skittering, modulated notes pulse and surge, sputtering suddenly to luminescent manifestation before disappearing just as quickly. Many of the compositions here are in fact more remniscient of the ambient side of Wolfgang Voigt's work in Gas, or perhaps the less beat driven aspects of "94 Diskont"-era Oval than what we've come to expect from what is ostensibly a 'guitar and electronics' based project. An almost kraut-like rhythm subtends the topography of "Composition Journal," the album's stunning opener, its low throb punctuated by brittle shocks from deconstructed drum machines over which Carlson weaves a spiralling lattice of bowed and picked notes. Later, on "Sleeping Birds," we're presented with a lulling idyll concocted by way of flute-like tones and languid note clusters, a shorter piece which dissolves seemlessly into modulating static at the onset of the pointillist microcosm that is "Spell of Resistance." The title track is without question the album's apex and constitutes a formal peak in Carlson's discography, as brilliant, bright guitar lines tread effortlessly in a sea of tranquil pulses and disembodied percussive elements.

Area C - Charmed Birds Against Sorcery

->Enjoy

Label: Students of Decay
Catalog#: SOD-18
Country: USA
Released: February, 2009
Genre: Leftfield
Style: Electro-acoustic

Tracklist:

1. Composition Journal
2. Of Set Purpose, No Arrangement
3. Fact, Fancy, Legend
4. Sleeping Birds
5. Spell of Resistance
6. Meeting Mid-Air
7. Charmed Birds Against Sorcery
8. Black-Thorn, Falcon, Picris