We talk about ambient a lot around here, as a style,
a form of musical expression, but do we really take into consideration what it
actually means? For me, getting a nice droning soundtrack, preferably via
synthesizer, can perk up any situation in which I find myself alone in a room
sitting quietly. But that’s more of a forced ambience, isn’t it? An imposition
of mood upon an environment. What about the room, the objects, the air when
that’s all there is? On Still, Estlin
Usher is bound to find that out.
Still is
an improvised electroacoustic encounter, whereby objects – dried grass, cymbal,
flowers, foil – are subjected to moving air and recorded, subtly processed and
delayed, their sounds creating the soundtrack of themselves, and only their own
soundtracks. Contact microphones capture the audio, and the results are
stretched and elongated over the course of two 36-minute sides. It rustles,
scrapes, bangs, and fizzes, and – if you’re listening properly, with patience
and through headphones – it envelops you within its microcosmic universe.
Who needs that far-out sci-fi ambient when you can
get the real thing, right here? Tactile, rough, and full of life – that’s the Still bottom line.
https://estlin.bandcamp.com/
https://clinquantpudendum.bandcamp.com
--Ryan
Posts
