Category Archives: Switched On

On Record: Bruce Brubaker – Eno Piano (InFiné)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

To read the full story behind Eno Piano, you can read Arcana’s recently published interview with Bruce Brubaker. In it he sets out his quest to recreate Brian Eno’s ambient masterpiece Music For Airports, made through tape loops and studio techniques, for a living and breathing musician to play on the piano.

To get the necessary sustain Brubaker has employed a number of intriguing techniques, not least the use of electro-magnetic bows over the piano, enabled by Florent Colautti.

While Music For Airports is the main act, Brubaker places it in the context of shorter works by Eno that have a more descriptive edge – The Chill Air, a collaboration with the late Harold Budd, By This River, co-written with Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Rodelius, and Emerald and Stone, where his collaborators are Jon Hopkins and Leo Abrahams, with whom he still works a great deal.

What’s the music like?

Incredibly restful – which of course is a description you could level at the original Music For Airports. Job done, you would think, but the reproduction of this music in human hands does reveal a slight and unexpected intensity, the performer having to maintain a very high degree of concentration and control to get close to honouring Eno’s original music.

Brubaker certainly does that, and the electro-magnetic bows help the sustain very subtly at the start of Music For Airports 2/1. The whole thing is so carefully thought through that each note feels researched but also instinctive, especially in 2/2 where the angular lines create an extraordinary sense of space.

While Music For Airports is indoors, the other three pieces are very much outside, and have a refreshing clarity. The Chill Air and By This River are bracing, wintry piano music.

Does it all work?

It does. When Bang On A Can released their chamber ensemble version of Music For Airports in 1998 it gave a new dimension to Brian Eno’s thinking. This piano work will have a similar effect, and is even more intimate in its confines.

Is it recommended?

Yes. Any Eno fan will want to hear this, and Bruce Brubaker shows just how imaginatively and thoughtfully he can attend to the music of others. This is a quiet revelation.

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Published post no.2,046 – Thursday 21 December 2023

Switched On: Alphabox – Only Forward EP (VLSI)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Alphabox is the new pseudonym under which Andrew Dobson is operating. Dobson has a good deal of previous form, as the much-loved Digitonial – where ambience could be found through cultured and beautifully sculpted electronica.

Alphabox looks to do similar, though is more beat-based and has a new home on the VLSI label.

What’s the music like?

Deeply satisfying – and, on the strength of this EP, music with staying power. The cool textures and easy profile of Feather set the tone, with the assurance that Dobson has clearly kept from his previous work. Gateway Station is relatively easy going, though there is more depth to the piano line than meets the eye, and a loop of consonant harmonies to go with the offbeat rhythm track which prove oddly reassuring.

Meanwhile the closing Blyth feels more like Plaid, but with a folky undertone containing a lot of agreeable melodic content, backed by a purposeful rhythm.

Does it all work?

It does indeed – and is beautifully produced by an expert hand.

Is it recommended?

It is – an auspicious beginning for a project that already looks like one to follow.

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Switched On: Ambient Focus – Terry Riley & Cornelius

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by Ben Hogwood

It is relatively rare for Arcana to recommend a radio program, but we are more than happy to make an exception for this rather wonderful two-hour slot. Taking the reins are Cornelius and Terry Riley, with two hours of ‘handpicked tracks curated in collaboration…featuring field recordings made in Kyoto by radio producer and sound artist Nick Luscombe. This Ambient Focus special celebrates the Ambient Kyoto Festival (2023), featuring performances by Terry Riley and Cornelius, both based in Japan.

There is a delicate intensity to the first two tracks we hear from Sleepy Dragon and Raymond Scott, before the beautiful Dream from Ryuichi Sakamoto. Riley’s own Journey From The Death Of A Friend picks up a compelling, understated momentum, as does the colourful orchestration of Toumani Diabeté’s Elyne Road in the hands of the London Symphony Orchestra. To be continued…with ever more adventurous work from John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Julien Lage and Gyan Riley (The Forking Path), Terry Riley (The Harp Of New Albion), and Jon Hassell (the gorgeous if haunting Last Night The Moon Came). The mix moves to beatific waters with Cornelius’ own Dream In The Mist and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s Milk, finishing with restrained, thoughtful and exotic music from La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, The Well-Tuned Piano in the Magenta Lights.

You can listen to the mix on BBC Sounds until the end of the year, here

On Record: Universal Harmonies & Frequencies – Tune IN (Yeyeh)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Tune IN is the result of a five-day studio session that took place in Amsterdam in the summer of 2022, between saxophonist / composer Jerzy Maczyński and the Chicago DJ and producer Hieroglyphic Being. The two, introduced by Yeyeh founder Pieter Jensen, were supervised by recording and mix engineer Rein De Sauvage Nolting, otherwise known as RDS.

The sessions were highly productive, spawning 26 improvised compositions where Maczyński delivered saxophone and electronic ‘tools’, with Hieroglyphic Being contributing synthesizer parts and vocals.

After the sessions. RDS and Jensen sat down and worked the improvisations into coherent tracks, some of them fragmented and reconfigured – while Maczyński added more layers of instrumentation, creating a what is termed as a ‘whole digital band of reed instruments’. This post-production process proved every bit as important as the improvisations themselves.

What’s the music like?

This is a fascinating and energising listen. The musical chemistry between the two artists is evident, and the dozen tracks chosen for Tune IN reveal a wide range of colours, moods and styles. There is a cosmopolitan feel to a lot of the music made by the pair, extending well beyond Western approaches but taking those in mind.

It is impressive, too, that none of the compositions overstay their welcome – not even the title track with which the collection begins, clocking in at nearly 13 minutes. This is a fascinating scene setter, establishing the dominance of the saxophone but also showing the wide range of colours. It starts with a constant hook but the music really spreads its wings, the electronics and acoustics dovetailing beautifully.

Throughout there is a fertile musical imagination in play. Maczyński contributes some agile saxophone playing, especially on Can U Hear The Hum. Multidimensional Transformation is a completely different story, using a block rhythm in an oblique throwback to 80s funk, while Sam-Sa-Ra employs a grubby beat as melodic figures flitter around above like a group of swallows. Then another about turn, for two wide-eyed dreamscapes in The Book Of Forbidden Knowledge and Call Of The Wild.

Still the two are not done, with a flurry of activity on The End Of Ur World, the music circling around its central axis like a swarm of bees. The Emerald Tablet signs off with a bubbling cauldron of activity, set over a sure footed four to the floor beat.

There are many calling cards and influences at play here – Sun Ra, Kamasi Washington, Anouar Brahem even – and that’s just for the work at the treble end of things! Hieroglyphic Being thumbs through a wide range of rhythms in response, referencing but not restricting himself to house and experimentalism.

Does it all work?

It does – and Tune IN impresses not just through its continual invention but its ability to reign in most of the excesses. I would wager the tracks that didn’t make it are of a similar quality, given the consistently good work here!

Is it recommended?

It certainly is. This is an invigorating album, recommended to lovers of jazz and improvised music but also electronic afficionados. The two contrasting musical powers complement each other perfectly – and deliver a piece of work demanding your attention.

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Published post no.2,034 – Saturday 9 December 2023

Switched On: Various Artists – Pop Ambient 2024 (Kompakt)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The first Pop Ambient compilation was released in 2001 – since when our need for ambient music is arguably greater than it has ever been, and the annual wander down Pop Ambient lane has become one of the most reassuring fixtures in the electronic music calendar. Arriving near the close of the year, it always coincides with the point where the end of year rush is starting to get too much.

As with previous years, it is a carefully selected blend of Kompakt favourites and rarities, none of them in a rush to get anywhere, and none of them containing any drums or rhythm tracks.

What’s the music like?

Regular listeners will know what to expect here – music suspended in time, with long drawn out notes that slowly shift across the sonic landscape. Many of the productions appear weightless, taking the listener through a dense cloud of ambience that soothes the fevered brow.

Yet while the music is familiar, Kompakt always manage to bring us something new. That means that while the listener is immediately soothed by diving into the ambience of T.Raumschmiere‘s Eterna 2, Mikkel Metal‘s Octarine offers a pattern of distinctive, metallic chimes that draw the listener in. Sono Kollektiv also presents an ambient face on Ever Last Thing but this track has dramatic crescendos within, pulling the ear towards them on headphones.

Joachim Spieth and Głós deliver the sort of weightless gem we have come to know and love from this source, Panta Rhei turning out to be a bottomless wonder, while Blank Gloss deliver some considered but rather beautiful guitar work on Weedless Hook.

Other airy beauties include Morgen Wurde’s Hiernach, with trumpeter Tetsuroh Konishi, and a similarly improvised space where Reich & Wurden make room for Alex Linster and Joel Jaffe on Orbit. Finally Segensklang (Bergfrieden) and Ümit Han (Nirgends) deliver atmospheric moods, the latter with a wandering melodic line.

Does it all work?

It does. None of this will come as a surprise to regulars, but that is a good thing – for Kompakt’s quality threshold is always high.

Is it recommended?

Definitely – with as much enthusiasm as all the others. Pop Ambient needs to remain a permanent fixture in our listening year.

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