Image 1 of 1
Mark Fell: Psychic Resynthesis 2LP (Frozen Reeds)
Gotta give it to Finland’s Frozen Reeds imprint. Though at times we’ve paused also tohow they tend to mostly order the top shelf wine, the most singular avant musicians in the vineyard, each of their limited releases (just eight or so stretched over thirteen years) has been a real event. Thomas Brinkman. Derek Bailey & Paul Motian. Julius Eastman. And that’s just the start of the alphabet. They have a Morton Feldman release too and now … Mark Fell!
And unlike the American tabletop or noise folks, who use a few pieces of gear to make an entire sandwich, Fell’s methods and forms are truly transdisciplinary, in almost all senses. As the one-sheet suggests, Fell’s rigor and “conceptual approach to electronic music and sound art […] explores the limits of structure, rhythm, and perception through a blend of computational systems, philosophical inquiry, and cultural critique.” Most artists barely approach one of these projects/lines of inquiry. Fell appears to always be in motion, always at work and always developing.
This album is really something, albeit stretching our attention and the skirting the edge of an instrument’s musicality. Again the one-sheet: “The music here emerges from a commission for contemporary chamber group Explore Ensemble […] Having been a notable critic of classical music's slavish adherence to traditional musical notation, ‘the score,’ and its associated issues of control and hierarchy, one might expect a provocative or abrasive approach. Instead, a work of deep, tonal introspection unfolds -- an elegant structure navigating the artist's trepidatious [note: don’t hear that word as a description in music writing or elsewhere] relationship with linear or timeline-based musical approaches. In Fell's selection of timbres […] the dynamic of composer and performer is interrupted by his twin adoption of system and flexibility. Mathematical determination and sonic fixation vie for dominance.”
This record takes time to unpack, though for now we are at work on some bootleg Mark Fell t-shirts, front will consist of the album cover art. Back will be a NYHC design and font with “Vie for Dominance” square in the center.
That said, no center in any of these ten “Combinations” tracks.
A really interesting double album, folks.
Gotta give it to Finland’s Frozen Reeds imprint. Though at times we’ve paused also tohow they tend to mostly order the top shelf wine, the most singular avant musicians in the vineyard, each of their limited releases (just eight or so stretched over thirteen years) has been a real event. Thomas Brinkman. Derek Bailey & Paul Motian. Julius Eastman. And that’s just the start of the alphabet. They have a Morton Feldman release too and now … Mark Fell!
And unlike the American tabletop or noise folks, who use a few pieces of gear to make an entire sandwich, Fell’s methods and forms are truly transdisciplinary, in almost all senses. As the one-sheet suggests, Fell’s rigor and “conceptual approach to electronic music and sound art […] explores the limits of structure, rhythm, and perception through a blend of computational systems, philosophical inquiry, and cultural critique.” Most artists barely approach one of these projects/lines of inquiry. Fell appears to always be in motion, always at work and always developing.
This album is really something, albeit stretching our attention and the skirting the edge of an instrument’s musicality. Again the one-sheet: “The music here emerges from a commission for contemporary chamber group Explore Ensemble […] Having been a notable critic of classical music's slavish adherence to traditional musical notation, ‘the score,’ and its associated issues of control and hierarchy, one might expect a provocative or abrasive approach. Instead, a work of deep, tonal introspection unfolds -- an elegant structure navigating the artist's trepidatious [note: don’t hear that word as a description in music writing or elsewhere] relationship with linear or timeline-based musical approaches. In Fell's selection of timbres […] the dynamic of composer and performer is interrupted by his twin adoption of system and flexibility. Mathematical determination and sonic fixation vie for dominance.”
This record takes time to unpack, though for now we are at work on some bootleg Mark Fell t-shirts, front will consist of the album cover art. Back will be a NYHC design and font with “Vie for Dominance” square in the center.
That said, no center in any of these ten “Combinations” tracks.
A really interesting double album, folks.