fakejazz.com

One of little exploited aspects of recording music is the ability for a room to shape sound. Dialing In uses this amazingly well. On this release, Quetzocoatl (aka Tim Hurley of the now defunct Bonecloud) also puts it to very good use. Made from a seemingly humongous catalog of old solo piano recordings, Hurley plays them loudly through strained speakers and captures the results. The sound is morphed both through the electroacoustics of the speakers being pushed to their limit and the sound signature of the room to create something entirely different from the source. While in Dialing In's case, the result ends up melted and decayed, in Hurley's case, it ends up softer and prettier, like it's capturing the sounds of the ghosts of the room inside the scattered piano and voice fragments. While the music works better as incidental or background music - making for a lovely backdrop to a quiet day - than it does in focused, headphone listening, what is remarkable about the album is how personal it seems. A few bits of piano playing or a few wordless vocals would seem to be about as impersonal as music can be. But by capturing the space around him equally as much as the notes he is playing, you feel side-by-side with Hurley for a very intimate recording.

Quetzolcoatl at Amazon & Insound