Axel Dörner and Fred Lonberg-Holm - Object 1
(Locust)
EKG - Object 2
(Locust)
The Locust Music label recently made waves with the inauguration of their Met Life series, a collection of compact discs that feature urban field recordings and "response recordings," so far represented by Keith Fullerton Whitman (aka Hrvatski) and AU. Still well in the process of releasing the discs in this series, Locust began, in March, to issue the first two discs of yet another series, this one dubbed The Object Series. In these recordings, players were asked to "explore the synaesthetic qualities of sound and the other senses as they attempt to produce ties between sound and static, non-musical objects." Each disc contains black and white photos on its cover, which, it is to be supposed, are an approximation of some sort of the static, non-musical objects which the disc's music is meant to symbolically signify or aurally represent.
Axel Dörner and Fred Lonberg-Holm are responsible for Object 1, the first disc in the series. The correlation between Object 1's music and cover art is a bit difficult to suppose, as the front of the album depicts a bowling ball, chest x-ray, and brillo pad. True to his usual form, Dörner's trumpeting is quiet and even-tempered, often registering at barely above a raspy whisper. His well-spaced blurts and coarsely-woven, more lengthy emissions comprise the background of the disc's improvisations, while Lonberg-Holm's cello stands in the foreground. Utilizing his usual multitude of techniques, Lonberg-Holm forms clusters of rattling, scraping and groaning in addition to more the more traditional sounds of his staccato plucking and tense bowing. Even when the duo's music reaches a boil, with Dörner's trumpet transformed by effects into a mini maelstrom and Lonberg-Holm eliciting long, resonant tones, Object 1 retains a subdued quality. Though by no means poor, the album does, however, pale in comparison to its follower in the Object series.
Object 2 features EKG, comprised of Chicagoans Kyle Bruckmann and Ernst Karel, in electro-acoustic material originally recorded live and in studio over a two-year period. The album's cover art contains photos of a set of magnets, a book of matches, and a frayed electrical cord ending in an exposed plug. Judging from these pictures, it seems logical to surmise that Bruckmann and Karel's inspiration or focus in this set of recordings is that of energy. The bulk of the disc's music find its genesis in EKG's manipulation of analog electronics, and even when the duo's acoustic instruments make their appearances (Bruckmann plays english horn and suona, a sort of Chinese oboe, Karel, the trumpet), they tend to do so inconspicuously, seeming to mimic the sounds of the album's electronics. Object 2 deals mainly in microscopic sound, glitchy electronic hums, crackles of static, blips and beeps, and fragile undulations. But, just as with the matches or frayed cord on the album's cover, the potential for a much more noticeable occurrence is always present, with interruptions of harsher sounds ever looming. The disc's six tracks are thoughtfully constructed and well-balanced, especially appropriate in regards to the photo of the electrical cord on the album's cover, as the listener never knows when EKG's more placid and easy-flowing moments will begin to spark, flare, or even begin to flame.
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