Brent Gutzeit - Losing Every Day
(Kissy)
Translated from its native German, Brent Gutzeit's last name means "good time," perhaps an odd moniker for a guy who makes music this challenging. Using electronics, field recordings, piano, and a handmade 20-string steel "bass," Gutzeit creates music that manages to be surprisingly difficult. It's not that Losing Every Day is sheer and utter ear-splitting noise, far from it, or that the album is so sparse and minimal that it's hard to even decipher its sounds. The issue at hand is that Gutzeit's music is both, and some of what lies in between, and what might seem to be the album's biggest stumbling block is also its most compelling feature.
"The Latest Flint Narrative" begins easily enough, and the track's first placid minute are so quiet that it's hard not to reach for the volume control. Tiny tones skitter almost inaudibly, with moments of silence, but the peace is suddenly broken by harsh static. Almost immediately, it's back to quiet, and by the three-minute mark, its hard to prepare for what might be coming next. The rest of Losing Every Day operates in much the same manner, though in different constructs and with different results. Gutzeit makes extremely good use of changes in dynamics and unexpected turns in the music, leaving the listener expectant and on edge like a good horror film. And just as with a horror film, the situation can be perceived as both stressful and thrilling. Waiting for the miniscule sounds to transform into sheer noise and bracing oneself for the end of pregnant pauses may not be some people's ideas of enjoyable listening, but, it seems, to fully enjoy Losing Every Day, one must be willing to fully commit to the experience, straining to hear the distant sounds in the background knowing full well what could lurk only fifteen seconds in the future. The serene sounds of birds chirping and cars driving by can be abruptly devoured by an extended solo on some sort of power saw, but Gutzeit shows great restraint by avoiding total reliance on such surprises, and whole tracks of more quiet, subdued sounds are not only present, but are obviously crafted with purpose and care. To classify Losing Every Day solely as a sort of audio thriller, though, is both unfair and incorrect, although there's still a degree of difficulty in listening to almost each of the album's tracks. Like spectators at a flea circus, listeners must be willing to strain to hear sounds that may or may not exist as the ambient sounds of every day life mingle with the extreme quiet that makes up much of Gutzeit's pieces.
So... Losing Every Day isn't necessarily easy, but is it, like Brent, a good time? For those with an attention to detail and a sense of adventure, it very easily can be, as long as they're willing to enter fully into Gutzeit's musical world, because to fully experience the entirety of Losing Every Day, there's not much middle ground. That's something that's easy to respect in an artist and an album, and what can make the album such an engaging listen.
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