Concert Silence - Rain Furniture

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5...according to our Ant on Thu 12 Aug, 2010.

Around a month ago I had lazer eye surgery which was quite an experience to say the least! It felt like my brain was being re-wired as I was still conscious... I returned home and after the anaesthetic had worn off my eyes were burning like I'd chopped a million onions, and it was very much a struggle to keep them open. At this point I decided to don my headphones and listen to a promo copy of this EP with my eyes closed in a totally darkened room. This voluntary sensory deprivation proved positive as with no visual distractions I was able to completely submerge into this wonderful three tracker that in many ways serves as a delicious side dish to the tasty meal that is '9.22.07'. Obviously I was unable to type out a review at that point, but it would have been really cool to do that.

So with eyes fully healed and only some candlelight, I will share my thoughts.... Generally speaking these tracks work in a far more subtle way than on the album... The short opener 'With Bicycles' eases things in gently with a distant trebly rhythm working in the background while warm and soothing suggestions of melody battle it out for front place in the mix, until they eventually become a single enveloping, comforting somehow familiar friend.

'Strange Footing' continues with the same sound palette in a sort of dimmed down fashion to begin with, making the previous track sound like a distant memory. A little like a loop stuck in your head but somehow constantly evolving. For me this works on an almost dubby level and as the sounds are pushed to the fore they begin to develop their own idiosyncrasies; a slow yet functional muted percussive stomp becomes the skeleton for THAT hypnotic synth phrase, while small pops, glitches, crackles and rich ambient textures build into a fuzzy soundscape that constantly, but subtlety evolves. All the while the heartbeat of the drums is the underlying framework.

'For Leaves' works for me on many levels; the shimmering lead synth gives way to fractured micro rhythms which have a sort of reduced distortion which is all glitched up and feels like some ancient machine language magically crunching away. Then euphoric drones lift the track as it changes gear into a totally blissed out zone which eventually, gently retreats in a ghostly and emotionally resonant fashion with distant fading keys.

This is available on both CD and vinyl formats in lush minimal, tactile, white on white embossed super high-quality sleeves. Fabulous sounds again from Charles Buckingham and Matthew Cooper and yet another beauty in the Infraction catalogue.

Also worth mentioning is that the vinyl version of '9.22.07' is now available and really is a gorgeous deluxe edition, with no expense spared in terms of vinyl and packaging quality.... Oh shit there is a massive spider hanging out in the corner of the room, clearly appreciating fine ambient music when it hears it. I don't think he'll be motivated to spin any webs this evening.

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Concert Silence is a collaboration between Charles Buckingham and Matthew Cooper, currently both residing in Portland, Oregon. An ongoing conversation between the two began in 2004 when they met over a shared interest in live sound manipulation. “09.22.07” was the first major outcome of discussions regarding symbiotic cultures and their implications to music. A live performance set up was designed, allowing each player to have equal input and manipulation control, (which can be seen in a diagram within the artwork of the album). After the completion of a live session recorded to minidisc, the two decided to release the unmastered un-edited music for free download via their website. A short while later the free recordings were taken down from the site. Infraction Records is now releasing a previously unheard professionally mastered recording of the session in its entirety.

“The sound of piano, both pure and processed, has become almost a sub-genre of its own within ambient electronica. There’s a Satie-authored lineage stretching from Budd/Eno through to Sakamoto’s collabs with Alva Noto and Fennesz, with signs to other off-beat sites. Buckingham’s background in visual art makes his contribution to Concert Silence somewhat enigmatic. He had previously co-opted Cooper for the audio of an online ambient audio-visual collaboration in the ‘Window Exchange’ project; Cooper’s signature is clearly recognizable, for all that the pianism of his earlier Eluvium work are tweaked and tampered with here. Six discrete movements, an affair of edgy ambience, with lilting lulling passages ceding to digital depredations. Some parts subtly infiltrated, others strewn with the detritus of error-smithery. “Part Two,” for example, sounds as if it’s slowly spontaneously combusting in the player, gradually growing into a larger conflagration, culminating in a veritable firework display of pops, crackles and wayward woozy pitch shifts, eating itself in echo and fuzz, before returning to the opening lull of barely audible soft-pedaled piano purism. Overall the Cooper-Buckingham pairing puts a distinctive slant on the compositional tradition mentioned above, finding a beguiling blend of the worlds of piano concerto and that of digital signal processing, with its random reversals, glitch flurries, and drone. Yet, for all its peculiarities of pitch and microsonic mist, strong melodic lines serve as binding, stiched together, lending poise to noise. “ – Alan Lockett

“09.22.07” will be issued as a CD [INFX 042] and 2xLP [INFX 042 LP]. The CD will be a 6 panel matte digipak. The 2xLP set will be in a Stoughton gatefold sleeve, with full color inner sleeves, 180 gram vinyls, and an OBI strip. The D side will feature a vinyl etching. Both versions are in editions of 900. Artwork and typography by Jason Evans.

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