Richard Ginns - Sea Change

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3...according to our Mike on Thu 21 Jul, 2011.

...And the prize for most misleading press release of the week goes to 'Sea Change' by Richard Ginns. If, as the text suggests, "This work aims to suggest a certain 'timelessness' and 'stillness' through sound and vision with a series of lo-fi Polaroid and Holga images", it kind of falls flat due to the fact that the CD comes housed in a cardboard slipcase with a solitary photo of the sea on the front. I don't know...maybe it was originally composed for an exhibition? Beats me. It's like some kind of weird practical joke. Still, if you ignore the press release entirely there's a lot to like about the sounds contained on the disc. It's quite grainy, textured, mid-end drone, with little tinkles of piano and guitar(?) here and there. In places it sounds like somebody sitting on a synthesizer playing with an abacus, while a mouse runs around inside a harpsichord on the other side of the room. Totally relaxing stuff, though, constantly morphing and evolving in a totally pleasing way. If grainy drone's your thing, look no further!

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Inspired by the memory of childhood visits to the seaside, 'Sea Change' is a reference to sentimental memory. This work aims to suggest a certain 'timelessness' and 'stillness' through sound and vision with a series of lo-fi Polaroid and Holga images. As with most of my work, the viewers position and perspective of the project is completely personal; the camera serving an important function therefore in projecting the viewer's experiences. The imagery produces a sensation of fondness and memory, recalling the childhood photo's we've all taken. Equally there's an imitative component to 'Sea Change's' audio, the textures creating a gentle sweeping sensation and a lull of tiny incidental sounds that suggest the rise and fall of sea levels.
Sea Change is an invite to explore one's own perception of time and memory. To paraphrase American poet Edward Cummings "For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It's always our self we find in the sea.

Tracklisting:

1. Riverbank
2. On Lakes
3. Mossbank
4. Point Dunes
5. Looking North
6. Sea Change

Alexandr Tagri said:

This album struck me as a poor man's version of the recent output from the american 12k label.
Similar sound palette to Marcus Fischer's 'Monocoastal' with none of the emotion or technique. In fact both releases contain a track called 'Mossbank'. Coincidence?

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