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Winter Pilgrim Arriving
Martin Archer (sonic dp, sythesizers, sopranino
sax, Bflat and Bass
clarinets, consort of recorders, violectronics),
Derek Saw (cornet),
Simon H. Fell (double bass),
Tim Cole (acoustic guitar),
Charlie Collins (flute, sampling),
Gino Robair (percussion),
James Archer ( amplified Objects),
Mick Beck (bassoon),
Sedayne (crwth).
This CD is comprised of compositions built up in the studio from improvisations, which are added to, manipulated or otherwise transformed by their settings. In the notes accompanying the disc, Archer speaks of music from a certain period, the late sixties/early seventies work of the Canterbury school of progressive rock, and the concomittant folk-rock sounds that were coming out of England during the same period, and how it conjured for him the feeling that music could be/ do anything. These compositions give me a similar feeling, but they sound completely modern. Unlike a lot of other constructions of this type that I've heard, the patchwork and various graftings don't come across as such. This music sounds like it all happened live, made by an army of sympatico musicians with an arsenal of equipment and a communal working approach. The sounds themselves are often quite disperate, but they are put together in such a way as to make them WORK magically. I'm impressed as hell by these little assemblages, and each time I listen, the amount of detail unfolds in a new way for me.
In the same set of notes, (a press release actually), Archer sadly admits that this may be the last disc from his label, due to a lack of commercial viability. He brings up the point that there seem to be far more people making "out" music these days than buying it, and while I'm sorry that his label may produce no further examples of his work, I'm hopeful that the sheer numbers of people investigating sound may usher in a period of renewed importance in listening as a past-time. Maybe someday soon we could all learn to make sounds together as an everyday thing, and get away from the idea of sound as a commodity. Hmmm.
Jeph Jerman
Discus
PO Box 658
Sheffield S10 3YR
England
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