Hallock Hill - There He Unforeseen (CD)

Bit mysterious, this one. There's not a lot of info on the press release but what I gather is that this is this guy's second release. It's an album of minimal, abstract music. It's music alright, though. Y'know, with instruments and that. Largely piano but there's a bit of guitar too. Bits of noise manipulation too, but it's really quite specifically not a drone or noise album. Largely you've got little quiet stabs (pokes?) of noise punctuated by silence. It gives you time to really digest the decay and tone of each sound. The recordings seem to have been fiddled around with in places and this album is really about focusing on those finer details. Sometimes the guitar comes to the fore, sometimes the piano, sometimes the sound manipulation, but the same minimal stop-start methods abide. There's a bit in the fourth track where it gets all loud and distorted and droney which is dead effective but a little incongruous on such a quiet record. The closing track has a real haunting beauty about it as the guitar gets a little busier over drawn out piano chords. If you're a tone fanatic who sees this sort of minimal, uneasy listening as a treat then there's plenty to digest on here, but if you're in search of melody and structure it might leave you a little cold.