AT JENNIE RITCHIE / VERTONEN "Time: Or Fractal Waves Of Increasing Novelty / Soilure" (BOC Sound Laboratories)

The Vertonen side sounds like Vertonen. It's fine. I grabbed this tape from the box of promos sent to Cassette Gods because I have enjoyed his work in the past and follow his record label, Crippled Intellect Productions. His piece is a three part suite of droney modular synth work. As usual, Vertonen uses nice sounds, but in this case, the tape sounds too typical, like he's just cruising through outer space on auto-pilot. The other side, though, blew me away completely. The A side is by At Jennie Ritchie, a project previously unfamiliar to me. It is a daring little tape for a noise artist to put out. Carefully placed in a sea of long silences, faint pops and cracles appear, sounding almost like noise from a bad cable or some other type of equipment malfunction. For fans of Radu Malfatti, Taku Sugimoto and the Wandelweiser composers who feel that contemporary music is far too active, too chatty. I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for further releases by this group/artist.