Tag Archives: Lawrence English

Switched On – Lawrence English: Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds (Room 40)

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by Ben Hogwood Picture of the Naala Badu building (c) Iwan Baan

What’s the story?

Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds has its roots in an invitation by Jonathan Wilson, curator of the Art Gallery of NSW. He commissioned Lawrence English to create a sound environment reflecting on the Naala Badu building.

English responded with what is described as ‘an atmospheric tint to visitors walking through the building throughout the year following its opening.

For his source material, English drew on artists ‘who have also operated in the orbit of the Art Gallery of NSW. These include Amby Downs, Chris Abrahams, Chuck Johnson, Claire Rousay, Dean Hurley, Jim O’Rourke, JW Paton, Madeleine Cocolas, Norman Westberg, Stephen Vitiello and Vanessa Tomlinson.

English invited the musicians to contribute to two long-form pieces, bringing them together in a continuous whole, which retains an improvisatory spirit. He then added the following note to the album:

“Place is an evolving, subjective experience of space. Spaces hold the opportunity for place, which we create moment to moment, shaped by our ways of sense-making. 
 
Whilst the architectural and material features of space might remain somewhat constant, the people, objects, atmospheres, and encounters that fill them are forever collapsing into memory.”

What’s the music like?

Sometimes installation pieces only work in the environment for which they were designed, but that is not the case here – this music works far beyond the confines of the Naala Badu building (above).

With his associates, Lawrence English has fashioned a rather beautiful stretch of music that works beautifully as a piece of immersive ambience. It is best enjoyed in one stretch, although the album is helpfully split into sections when downloaded.

Initially a sonorous, mid-range piano spins slow but thoughtful lines over held drones that shift very slowly, surrounded by thick ambience. Yet by section V, the music has blossomed in colour, to this listener a rich, dark blue. The mood shifts during VI, a woolly backdrop supporting a fresher, cooler piano line, but then VII shifts to a lighter outlook before becoming more discordant. Ultimately a peaceful conclusion is found in VIII, the final section.

Does it all work?

It does – though if listening on headphones, be sure you have little noise around you, for sometimes the mid-range frequencies can be compromised.

Is it recommended?

It is – Even The Horizon Knows Its Bounds is an instinctive but immersive piece, greater than the sum of its parts. It is music that refuses to rush, taking its own sweet time – a valuable commodity in today’s hectic world.

For fans of… Loscil, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Stars Of The Lid

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Published post no.2,446 – Saturday 15 February 2025

Switched On – Loscil // Lawrence English: Colours Of Air (Kranky)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

This collaboration between Canada and Australia, between composers Loscil and Lawrence English, was born from a long-running conversation on electronic music. It gives both musical minds a chance to explore together the sounds of a pipe organ from the Old Museum in Brisbane. While Lawrence English’s work of the past decade has centred on the sounds of instruments such as this, Loscil’s has tended towards less analogue keyboard instruments.

Here the two combine their unique and deeply personal approach to music, taking the source recordings and manipulating the organ sounds into personal and uniquely colourful responses – hence a different shade for each of the eight tracks.

What’s the music like?

Perhaps inevitably, colourful. However there is something about the way Loscil and English bring colour into their music that sets it well above the ambient ‘standard’. These tracks really do live up to their names, and with eight different hues throughout the album it is certainly one for the mind’s eye.

The Brisbane instrument makes a major contribution, but not just through its resultant music. The mechanical actions are part of the recording process too, so on occasion the very instrument is inhaling and exhaling, providing a white-noise percussion along with the pitches.

Without ado, Cyan allows us to dive straight into these wonderful textures, a glittering array of musical shades that soon become punctuated with soft chimes. The music shimmers in a way that the organ music of Philip Glass does, but the motifs are blanketed, the shape shifting chords taking place like billowing clouds.

As the eight-part suite progresses, so we get to hear more of the nuances of the Brisbane instrument, with varying levels of attack and depth. The pitches stay relatively static, often in a drone-like stasis, but some allow for greater, mysterious movement – such as Aqua, with its ethereal sighing motif. Sharper tones are used for the brightness of Pink, a vivid contrast to the relatively withdrawn colours of Grey and Black that went before.

Black, the longest track of the eight, is a majestic piece of work, dark as space itself but panning out to the edge of perspective. Of a similar dimension is Magenta, whose slight pitch bends create a drawn out and very intense sonic drama.

Yellow is another standout moment, and it just so happened that I experienced this piece of music during a sunrise, which it most certainly evokes – one of those wonderful moments where sound and nature are as one.

Does it all work?

Yes. There are some fascinating processes at work here, and the feeling persists that the outcome is an equal musical agreement between the two parties. The listener still gets Loscil’s uniquely wide, weather-beaten panorama, but the pipe organ adds something special, Lawrence English securing his timeless response in a different and slightly more mechanical way.

Is it recommended?

Without hesitation. A mandatory purchase for fans of either – and for those in need of some musical balm to mark the end of January.

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