Search - Works from the Beast :: Spike: Works From Beast I

A first rate collection of vital new works

Steve Benner | Lancaster, UK | 10/14/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This release - encouragingly labelled Vol. 1 - of recent music from composers with the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST) presents an interesting collection of works for tape. And while it is a sad fact that there is no music here by women, this disc does provide a welcome contrast to releases from some other academic studios in that it concentrates on the works of its mature, postgraduate composers, rather than those of its staff members. And very fine works they all are, too.Perhaps not surprisingly, the bulk of the material presented falls within the acousmatic school of electroacoustic composition. And yet, while all of the works exhibit that indefinable but distinctive quality - and highly polished finish - that one immediately associates with the ElectroAcoustic Music Studios of Birmingham University, there is plenty of variety and individuality expressed here too. The opening track - Iain Armstrong's "Set Adrift in Stolen Moments" (1999) - is the longest on the disc, clocking in at almost 13 minutes. It is also arguably the finest work here, building in intensity from quiet beginnings into a powerful series of climaxes and transitions, providing a plethora of rich sound tapestries along the way. The work is full of ambiguities of source, such as chattering birdsong mixed with sounds suggesting clattering and ticking machinery. Sounds reminiscent of clocks become an echo of horses trotting through cobbled streets in just one of a number of effortless transitions, all of which have the power to reach deep into the listener's psyche and dredge up all manner of mental associations. Similarly, Dugal McKinnon's piece "Horizont im Ohr" (1998) is, in essence, an archetypal example of acousmatic sound art, delivering its message through a complex web of texture-gesture relationships. Throughout its 10-minute duration, we are provided with tantalising suggestions as to its source materials, but these, together with their developments, always manage to remain on the abstract side of the aural divide. The piece demonstrates a masterful craftsmanship too. It also has an ending to take the breath away, slowly departing, it seems, over some far distant auditory horizon where the listener cannot follow.James Bentley's "Bruit" (1997-8) also articulates its abstracted source materials through their gradual development - here within an overall arching 10-minute structure. The work builds itself from an initial opening burst of white noise, into a series of endlessly varying textures, all the while propelled along by potent sonic gestures, before returning with a sudden finality to its white noise origin and silence. Likewise, "*Eclipse*" (2000) by Jamie Bullock builds from gently ringing bell sounds, unfolding in an entirely hypnotic manner throughout its 8 minutes or so, while Steven Naylor's piece, "I Wish" (2000) is constructed from a simple sung phrase (from which its title derives), together with samples of smallpipe and whistle. Its haunting themes are stretched and frozen into increasingly denser textures in a long drawn-out unfolding of ideas. Two composers of works on this disc demonstrate roots within a more popular music culture than is perhaps common within the electroacoustic music community. In "A sharp intake of breath" (2000), Simon Scardanelli mixes various breathy vocal samples with pulsing samples of coloured noise and electrical mains hum. The result shows the composer's rock-derived background through the work's raw-edged, rather visceral nature (as well as his love of prolonged reverb!) This is a potent and punchy piece of some 6 minutes duration, which, while lurching violently from idea to idea, fairly drags the listener along with it.As, indeed, does "Sportster" (2000) by Derek Thompson (aka Hoodlum Priest). Here, the sound of a motorcycle engine has been used to construct a study in simple but dense tones, textures and rhythms. Almost primeval in character, this 10-minute work is powerful proof that modern man has not come as far from his tribal origins as he might suppose, despite his mechanistic culture.Finally, the short work "B-side" (1998) by Antti Saario nicely bridges the stylistic divide between the last two works and the other purely acousmatic pieces. It presents an acousmatician's somewhat surreal view of music-making, blending vinyl record surface spits and pops, signal-generator tones, machine noises, together with miscellaneous other squeaks and bursts of noise, guitar licks and amplifier feedback into one virtually seamless and, at times, almost senseless whole. Cracking stuff!All in all then, this is a very impressive collection of pieces from one the UK's foremost electroacoustic studios. If I were to have any criticism, it would only be of the enclosed booklet notes, which are minimal in the extreme. They also present the disc more as a sampler, rather than as a true collection, completely failing to recognise the works for what they very much are: the product of a collective aesthetic, cultivated within the fertile environment of an artistic hothouse. Such personal gripes aside, it is nevertheless good to see music such as this being championed by an established commercial recording company. I very much hope that there are, indeed, further BEAST volumes on the way from Sargasso."