Released
1998
Label
Drone Records
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
Stefan Knappe
Drone Records
Gneisenaustrasse 56
28201 Bremen
Germany
Visit
Last Edit/Update
24 March, 1999
Oblivion Ensemble
PHONORECORD 7"EP
(first edition: 250 copies)
Track Listing
Side A
Phonorecord
Side B
Phonorecord
With more than twenty minutes of music, Oblivion Ensemble's Phonorecord
is one of the longest playing releases in Drone Records' series of
7"EPs. The material for the record was recorded live at The Tea House Art Gallery in
Rochester, New York, and subsequently edited and arranged for this release. No distinction
has been made between the two sides of the record; this simply is Oblivion
Ensemble's phonorecord: two extended stream-of-consciousness
soundscapes.
A great wealth of different
elements have been incorporated into these free-floating musical tapestries. Here are many
layers of spacious atmospheres, sporadic outbreaks of various percussions, electronic
effects, occasional samples of an indiginous quality, and the reflexive use of crackling
vinyl. The music vexes and wanes, being at turns relaxing and meditative, and, intense and
disconcerting. At times, the pieces come to complete halts, only to resume again, and
pursue altogether different tangents, and as such the music is propelled by a nice sense
of the unpredictable and spontaneous. These improvisational qualities are perhaps best
illustrated by the manner in which both sides end -- one, abruptly in the middle of a
tone, and the other with a brief appendix of drifting ambience. The over-all impression of
listening to these strange, meandering compositions is akin to watching some drama or
ritual unfold, the content of which is alien and obscure to the point where only the
vaguest comprehension is possible.
Phonorecord is presented in
a faded purple sleeve with colorful handmade stamp designs. The vinyl is of a smoky
translucent variety, and the release is as usual limited to 250 copies in this first
edition.
