Keenan Lawler - The Ghost of a Plane of Air
(Konstant)
Keenan Lawler is the bleeding edge of the Lousiville, KY music scene these days.
That's what he told me shortly after I met the 35-year old experimental steel guitarist, just after his set at the
Transmissions Festival in Chapel Hill. Lawler's performance utilized the warm acoustic tones of his
instrument through digital manipualtions, sampled and multi-tracked to create a very dense environment.
The Ghost of a Plane of Air touches on many modern-day minimalist composers, while also drawing
inspiration from the recent wave of abstract electronics, but is infused with Lawler's own original ideas.
Describing his work as process-based composing, Lawler blurs the lines between improvisation and strict
composition. Certainly chance factors into his music in some way, but much of the sound on this disc is clearly
very deliberate.
Lawler's music is unique, touching on just intonation and power electronics at the same time. The final track,
"A Suspension in Dream Time," stretches out a peacful atmosphere over 22 minutes. This aptly-named track
is beautiful and easy to get lost in; by placing it at the end of the disc it provides a lush soundtrack to drift off
to sleep with. Ghost of a Plane of Air is not all ambient bliss -- some tracks are quite harsh and electronic
sounding, although all of the source material is derived from a steel guitar.
|
