Four long form works
Four recent albums where the artist has focused on a single, album-length composition
fields we found - resolve / relate 01
The first in a new monthly series from fields we found (aka 'Alex' from quiet details) is resolve / relate 01, a 21 minute composition made entirely with analogue instruments, recorded to tape in one take. Building with the quiet thrum of a droning organ, delicate glitch and white noise emerge to add tension before a distorted triangle chimes through for a reprieve. A respectful nod to the works of Éliane Radigue (like Jetsun Mila and Occam XXV).
Ramón Oliveras - A Certain Darkness Is Needed to See the Stars
Beyond the impressive levels of control and endurance on display, this 39 minute percussive flow from Swiss musician and composer Ramón Oliveras, demonstrates his astute skill for working a steady rhythm. Featuring only drums, A Certain Darkness Is Needed to See the Stars was recorded live in a single take with no overdubs or edits. Inspired by the death of his mother, it's:
...an energetic, minimal, polyrhythmic composition, played on a single prepared drum set (with aluminium foil). Time and form dissolve as loops and repetitions take hold. The piece expands and contracts. It changes texture while still maintaining a steady pulsating fluidity.
Clearly an outpouring of grief in a rhythmical form, which I imagine was as cathartic for the artist as it is hypnotic for the listener.
Phillip Golub - LOOP 7
Loop 7, a 28 minute stand-alone work, is the second part in a series of minimalist compositions by American pianist and composer Phillip Golub (the first was Filters from 2022) in which he explores loops using a '22-note per octave' tuning system. This peculiar system (achieved through two microtonally-tuned Yahama Disklavier pianos operated via a keyboard controller) accounts for the dissonant notes that pattern the evolving loops:
...short phrases repeated at descending pitch levels, falling a mere 1/22th of an octave on each repetition. Eventually, lower notes disappear and reappear as upper voices, giving the music an Escher-esque feeling of a never-ending descent.
With lots of studio trickery involved, including overdubs with Scordatura electric guitar and microtonal vibraphone, technically, it's an extraordinary piece of work. The result is, at once, sombre in its beauty and detached in its sparse narrative. One to admire.
The Necks - Bleed
The avant-garde Jazz trio (from Australia) are no strangers to long form works having adopted and adapted an improvisational approach to their serpentine compositions since their debut in 1989. Long tracks allow them time and space to morph shapes into a variety of fluid flows, sparse motifs and sick grooves. Bleed is their twentieth album (a 42 minute track) and falls into the sparse motifs camp, as they use loosely reoccurring elements to conjure a sense of entropy; the air of decay lingering on the tense strokes of the double bass and the detached piano refrains. Desolate beauty.