Mathieu review

[john hudak <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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hi Chris,

i hope the following review is useful.  I was contemplating adding 
more at the end, explaining more of my feelings about the cd as a 
whole, but thought better of it, as the factual-ish-ness of what i 
wrote seems to describe my feelings objectively.  let me know if this 
is okay with you...i can always add more.

the pure/noonbugs review is coming.

Stephan Mathieu.Die Entdeckung Des Wetters.Lucky Kitchen LK 019.April 2002

The first version of Touch (consisting of four parts:  Into, Love, 
Inside and Touch), Into, creates an atmosphere that reminds me of 
when I visited Prague and we went from church to church, viewing the 
various interiors of the individual churches.  Occasionally there 
would be an organ playing music prior to a church service, that 
seemed to be playing themes and variations on a simple melody. 
Whatever is making the sound in all these pieces seems to have the 
quality of glass, when you fill a crystal goblet with water, dip your 
finger in, and rub it around the top edge of the glass to get a 
steady tone.  Into creates a contemplative/meditative mood.

The second part of Touch, Love, sounds like the first piece turning 
in on itself, folding, like one kneads dough...different parts meet 
different parts, but it is always a part of the whole.  The same 
sound source seems to be used throughout these four pieces.

The third part of Touch, Inside, is close in feeling to the first 
piece, with the addition of some sounds that remind me of air, under 
pressure, escaping intermittently...a calming sound.  I couldn't help 
thinking of a factory of some sort, where something is being made 
with a machine over and over again.

The fourth part of Touch, the title track, shares the qualities of 
the first three pieces, with the addition of the feeling of the 
sounds warmed to the texture of a string section...cellos.

Touch was composed in July 2001, as an accompaniment to a glass 
exhibition, held in an ancient glass factory in Meisenthal, France, 
and is now part of a permanent exhibition there.  The four pieces 
were played back through a small four channel speaker setup in 
auto-repeat, which I'm sure is a perfect environment for listening to 
these pieces.

Die Entdeckung Des Wetters has a heavier sound, like that of the 
mechanical processing of something...very meditative again, but 
flatter, more drawn out than Touch, containing a more omnipresent 
drone with little delicate things being done in the distance.  It is 
suitably permanently installed in (as it was specifically created 
for) an old ironworks, wherein hardcoal was transformed into coke by 
means of baking in hot ovens for 18 hours.  The original loop of 70 
minutes was played back through a four channel system placed in the 
cokeries area of the ironworks.

   

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john hudak
john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.johnhudak.net
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