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review by Mark Morton Tom Heasley performs ambient style music on the tuba. Both pieces in this recording were recorded live, with no overdubs, (although it appears that amplification and perhaps delay were used) and were improvised. These facts are not as remarkable as the beautiful music that flows from this arrangement. I think this is a great ambient CD and Heasley is to be congratulated for his music, however it was produced. Do you remember when you first heard ambient music? Perhaps it was in a record store, where one of the ultrahip clerks played some mysterious droney music that seemed evocative of far off spaces and places in a way that other music was not. Maybe you were alone on a quiet night and listening to the radio when a very different sounding radio show came on. The music played may have been quiet yet powerful, and may have caused a slight unfamiliar stirring in your stomach and gentle, warm evocations to wrap around your brain. As your sense of wonder was activated it seemed like you had discovered something important. As time passed and you listened to new "ambient" releases and became familiar with the style, was something lost? This recording, consisting of two improvisations by the artist using what is for today a very minimal setup, rekindled that sense of wonder in me, and a lot of other feelings besides. I cannot recommend this recording to ambient spacemusic fans strongly enough. The relatively brief "Prelude" combines delay (whether natural room ambience or electronically induced) with a poignant theme, which Heasley expounds and elaborates on with great sensitivity. His musicianship on the tuba is superb, the tone quality and breath control exhibited all are in service to one thing- evocative expression. "Prelude" works because the theme is well-constructed and the artist is able to respond to the nuances of the moment in the service of emotional expression. The second piece, "Thonis," is far longer and is taken from a broadcast of Chuck van Zyl's excellent "Star's End" radio program. "Thonis" depends, at least in part, on the technique of "multiphonics" which allows a normally monophonic instrument to produce a multiplicity of tones, overtones and timbres. Circular breathing is also used to allow some tones to sustain indefinitely and other tones to appear beside various held notes. In contrast to "Prelude" where the listener is aware of some sort of brass instrument playing a lyrical melodic line, much of "Thonis" sounds similar to what one would expect from a droning synthesizer or a Tibetan throat singer. Overtones appear next to held notes, morph into something else and merge into a quiet held chord. A variety of sounds are heard. Bell like tones, choir sounds, metallic synth textures, and, of course, tones that sound like a brass instrument, although not tones that one would necessarily expect would come from a tuba. The feeling is that of floating in space and marveling at that fact. Although credit must be given to Heasley's assured mastery, another reason why this recording is so successful could include his deliberate limitation of his music to a "minimal" (logistically, not weight-wise) setup. Heasley does not have to burden himself with an attempt to learn and operate seven or eight interfaces and does not have to worry whether those interfaces will "synch up" or malfunction. He therefore has given himself the freedom to explore, to be spontaneous, to "get into" a tone and to discover and shape the next minute of music as a response to the previous minute. This type of freedom is most important in improvised music, which this is. Precedents for this type of exploration exist, from Stuart Dempster's trombone pieces to Pauline Oliveros' "deep listening" experiences. But this recording has a decidedly different flavor. I thought I was somewhat knowledgeable about ambient music (perhaps even jaded?) but I had not heard of this release before it was sent to me for review. It will amply repay your effort to seek it out. |
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