Review of Zammuto: "Solutiore of Stareau: Disc One"

[Øivind Idsø <plateaux@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Zammuto - »Solutiore of Stareau: Disc One» (Infraction INFX 002)

So where?s this glitch thing going, then? Now that its rippled surface
has been appropriated by Playboy (the obvious irony: Bodies -- this is
what I?ve heard -- über-perfected by the surgeon?s touch on one page,
Clicks?n?Cuts´ popular glitchery reviewed on the other) and American
smooth talking journos are, most probably, namedropping Autechre and Kid

606 before interviewing Alanis Morrisette at the Hilton, maybe it would
help to take a step back in time.

Rioux?s records recently launched their very own record label,
Infraction, and celebrate their existence with what is actually a
re-release of sorts. Zammuto, known for his excellent «Willscher» CD on
Apartment B, several years ago made an ambient trilogy, of which this
Infraction release is the first instalment. So rather than show what?s
happened after «Willscher», we get some insights into what happened
previous to it.

«Solutiore?» is one long piece, though the CDs been divided into
fourteen tracks for practical purposes and, I think, recommended random
behaviour. The source material seems to come more or less solely from an

electric guitar, where the quiet hiss and hum from the amplifier is
glitchified and then placed alongside droney treatments of vibrating
guitar strings. The glitch is a steady 4/4 most of the time, though
polyrhythmic and arhytmic displacements occur during the seventy minutes

it takes for the piece to explore quiet bliss.

At first listen I tried listening attentively to what was going on, but
the overall harmonic (as in «nice symmetrics») sound became too
monotonous for what the pretentious might call intellectual pleasure.
«Willscher» is varied in its intensities and glitchery and musical
material, and also more sophisticated in the way the rhythmic glitches
are treated both timewise and soundwise, in addition to featuring a more

melodious approach to the guitar rather than the subtle drones on
«Solutiore?». Does it work, then? Well, yes, I think so, though I?m not
completely sure. It works as a pleasant glitchdrone in the background,
accompanying other activities. The fascinating part is that after some
minutes of dronery, the sound changes, almost unperceptibly, into
something a little bit different; and then, after a while, it changes
again, barely; or, after about 57 minutes, a new harmonic component is
introduced, that once again grabs your attention. It?s this attention to

surface detail that makes «Solutiore?» work and not become another one
of those grey ambient pieces that start nowhere and goes nowhere and
ends nowhere.

Compared to «Willscher» I find it a bit weak, as I favour the
complexities of that CD to the pleasant drones and glitches from
«Solutiore?», but whatever suits your mood will ultimately decide. If
you just want to relax while turning your head once in a while to check
if you actually did hear someone breathe heavily, once, or twice,
downstairs, this debut release from Infraction is well worth closer
inspection.

/Øivind/