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Released
1998

Label
Ash International [R.I.P.]

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

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Last Edit/Update
09 June, 1998

Disinformation

R&D2

         
Track Listing

9. Live At The Museum Of Installation
10. Disinformation Vs. Oubliette
11. Data Storm 2
12. Artificial Lightning
13. Stargate
14. Theophany Vs. National Grid
15. Ghost Shells 2
16. National Grid

          R&D2 is the second installment in a series of works by Disinformation, dedicated to documenting the aural manifestations of electrical and magnetic phenomena. The CD thus features a total of sixty minutes of what may be termed "pure" ambience -- recordings of "data noise," "solar radio emissions," natural and artificial "lightning strikes" and various "field disturbances."
          There are of course numerous musicians who use noise as the source for their musical creations, however, this work by Disinformation is an animal of an entirely different kind. The tracks on R&D2 feature the source sounds unmanipulated; the art here does not lie in creating some kind of ordered compositions out of the seeming "chaos" of noise. Disinformation's achievement is the recording of these phenomena of sound in themselves, and the pleasure of listening to the results derives from the recognition of the integrity of the recordings.
          The endeavor of capturing these obscure sound emissions may appear eccentric, but the experience of listening to R&D2 presents a thrill not unlike that of looking into a microscope or telescope for the first time. These recordings reveal facets of our world that are unfamiliar, although the sources of the recordings are almost mundanely familiar. As such, Disinformation's work is not music by any common definition, rather their CD is to "music," what documentary films are to movies. And yet, the various vibrating, soaring, humming, crackling, pulsating, gyrating and rumbling "noises" presented here, are not noisy in an irritant manner. The majority of the recordings are in fact rather subtle and subdued, and, if anything, the streaming nature of most of the sounds have soothing qualities.
          Disinformation was aided in their aspirations to create this album of radio scientific documentation, by such institutions as the Royal Navy, Eurostar, Oubliette, Netwerk South East, and the Central Electricity Generating Board; the finished work has been released by Ash International.

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