Spheruleus - Frozen Quarters

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4...according to our Ant on Thu 01 Apr, 2010.

This is the work of Harry Towell who has used lots of field recordings from his local environment. I've joked in past reviews that records sound like they were made in a skip, but this chap has actually recorded some sounds in a skip, using its natural reverb. This is ultra chilled with some warm melodic elements derived from trumpet, harmonica, zither and guitar. This really is lovely soothing stuff that I guess sort of fails in the ambient category. Post-ambient perhaps??? This guy is talented and he makes some sublime sounds. Ltd hand numbered edition in the usual house style arigato-pak.

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Hot on the heels of spire025 is spire024, obviously.
Here are a few words about Frozen Quarters from Spheruleus aka Mr Harry Towell.
“FIELD RECORDINGS
The album, entitled ‘Frozen Quarters’ spans 14 short tracks that all feature recordings made in and around my locality in an attempt to preserve and capture my day-to-day environment.
I’ve recorded snippets from various household objects, sounds heard outside and some unusual ideas I’ve had along the way. The most unusual of these involved climbing into a huge empty waste-disposal skip to record instrument takes and picking up tons of natural reverb along the way…
I have completed an hour-long mix of all of the many recordings I made for the album and plan to release it on a netlabel as a precursor to the full album.

TONE
The melodic elements throughout ‘Frozen Quarters’ are mostly derived from various instruments I’ve acquired throughout the recording of this album. You can hear sounds of keyboard, zither, trumpet, piano, harmonica and guitar. I’d say around 95% of the compositions made with these instruments were done by myself through experimenting with different melodies and chords. This is an approach that is pretty new for Spheruleus, but one that I am becoming increasingly interested in. Although I do love electronic and synth based music, I am fascinated by how playing instruments to provide a sound-source for further electronic treatment can really add an organic warmth to my sound design. What’s more, is that with the album concept being about preserving an environment to capture its essence, an organic and real experience has been lifted through means of these instrument recordings. Rather than create a synthetic representation of the environments, I have managed to actually been able to be part of the process through such instruments.
I would never normally refer to myself as a musician or instrument performer since I’ve never had any form of teaching. But my natural ear for sound and music has meant that I have been able to lift some interesting sounds and tone from this small collection of instruments.

The mastering was handled by Mr Ian Hawgood (who has a release soon on under the spire) who’s done an incredible job. This is a seriously great headphone listen.

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