The Static Memories
Puddling
UK Linear
Obsessional LOR107 CD
(2018)
Just squeezed into the very end of the 2018 Linear Obsessional release
schedule is this stunning item from Brighton musicians Gus Garside and Dan
Powell. Before I go any further, there
is probably a need for disclosure on my part in relation to this duo. Firstly, the label I manage, TSOKL, released
the Static Memories’ 2014 album The
bloudy vision of John Farley and thus I was closely involved in the
brokerage of that release. Secondly, I
occasionally record with Dan Powell under the name Brambling. And lastly, I have recently begun developing a
project with double bassist Gus Garside.
Okay. So far, so incestuous. You may quite reasonably assume – based on
this information – that I might be far from neutral in my appraisal of Puddling. It’s fair to say that I have a lot of
admiration for these dudes’ musical output, yes, but I was sent a review copy,
so my intention is to try my hardest to be impartial.
On Puddling, Garside plays double bass and electronics while
Powell uses “electronic and acoustic objects”, “electronic…objects” being a
fairly opaque way to describe software and various associated pieces of
hardware. But there’s nothing wrong with
a little mystique.
I particularly like the pieces that don’t immediately
conform to what one might expect from electro-acoustic improvisation: “The
Moon”, “Recedes at Daybreak” (an interesting noise at the beginning like hearing
distant rock guitar out of doors), “The Homeless”, and “The Fifteenth Boulder”
all share a searching quality; an attempt to break new ground. On the other hand, after repeated listens, pieces
like “Time and the Hunter” or “The Pilgrimage” could be viewed as a little
over-wrought or conventional in comparison, perhaps. One other interesting thing that I’ve not
been aware of so much in their previous work, is the inclusion of unprocessed
sounds of hand percussion: bellstrings, shakers and the like, drifting and
evaporating like small clouds on a summer’s day. It reminds me a little of Powell’s other project,
Nil; an improvising duo who use acoustic objects exclusively.
On the whole, Puddling
is good, considered, balanced improvisation.
The Static Memories refer to their work as “…music spontaneously
composed…”. but let’s not split hairs. The
pieces appear to have been the result of more than one session, being recorded
over winter and spring 2017-2018. So,
not your usual free improv, then, but testament to the good taste and
discerning palette of Linear Obsessional boss, Richard Sanderson, who has been involved in myriad experimental
projects himself and, therefore, knows his onions, as it were.
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