DAC CROWELL & KURT DOLES

S/t

Suilven Recordings (2004)

review by Mark Morton

Crowell and Doles produce rather abstract electronic music based on modulated drones and filter feedback. There are three pieces on this release, produced on a new Scottish label that apparently intends to focus on this type of music (to which I say "good" because you can't have too much of this sort of music whereas there are a number of genres - youngish female pop singers springs to mind - that are beginning to sag from overexposure). Two of the pieces are rather short while "Rain Temple Garden" is over 40 minutes. I recommend this release to fans of space music, minimal electronic music and what is sometimes categorized as "experimental" or electronic classical music .

The brief "Yankee Ridge," by Crowell alone, opens the recording with some varied timbre drones and filter sweeps. These eventually begin to sequence in random sounding ways creating a very pleasant "morphing" effect. This piece was a nice prelude to the recording and I wish it had gone on a little longer.

"Rain Temple Garden" is the major work here and it can be described as a "soundscape" that creates a picture of such a garden, at least in one's imagination. In fact, this piece more or less moves beyond soundscape into something that seems a lot like a sonic biosphere. This effect is created by the randomized "natural" sounds including some realistic birdcalls and some ubiquitous raindrops - or a water dripping sound, I'm not sure. The water sound represents the only (minor) irritant as it continues throughout the piece, occasionally revealing its electronic origins by changing into a percussive sound , but 40 odd minutes was a little too long for that particular sound, at least for this reviewer. The piece is drone-based , with subsonic sounds at the start, combined with what sounds like "high" feedback or filter resonance. The timescale of the piece is expansive. As the listener realizes that change appears slowly he or she is able to "relax into" the piece and experience the created environment. Eventually, the high feedback tones become denser and morph a little creating a feeling that sounds like a climax, or at least a division. The piece then returns to the beginning sounds and percolates slowly along to its conclusion. The drones sound very spatial, with differentiated layers of sound, each occupying its own space, almost like Ligeti that is very slowed down. The spatial effects also enhance the "sonic biosphere" feeling mentioned earlier.

"In Midsummer" follows, another short piece that features a lovely, distant-sounding Enoesque motif that repeats and echoes over a modulated drone that has a slightly edgy sound. There is just enough of a random feel to this piece that a nice feeling of being "in the moment" is created. This was another piece that I would have been glad to hear more of.

I hope that Crowell and Doles will share some of their more recent work (although this is a 2004 release, the pieces were created in 1994 and 1997) and I hope that Suilven will continue to release such interesting projects. Recommended.