Five electroacoustic tracks constructed by Matthew Atkins with Paul May on drums, Carolyn Hume on pianos and Simon Kobayashi on guitars. This lies somewhere between the organic and synthetic with what I imagine is the results of Matthew recording the players and then creating the tracks by editing, sequencing, looping, adding effects, etc. At various points the instruments themselves are entirely recognizable, retaining their identity and inherent sonic qualities which are thoroughly respected by his computer work. It's not a case of recording instruments and seeing how fucked up and mental you can make them sound with the aid of software. There's an emphasis on structure and almost songs even with an improvised feel to much of the playing that is captured. I particularly like the glitched up manic itchy percussion of the fourth track. Definitely an interesting project.
(Norman Records)
The first of two new releases from Minimal Resource Manipulation, the label responsible for the excellent “Simple Pleasures” and many other unassuming electronic releases besides.
This is brilliant, there's a real brooding menace present in each of the five songs with their repetitive piano loops and skittering percussion. Some of it sounds like mood music from the computer game “Dead Space” in which you have to wander about in an abandoned space station whilst bizarre alien monsters try to eat your face.
Quite apart from the computer game monsters, there are also elements of Sun Ra here, as the music takes on a distinctly other-worldly jazz-tinged feeling. There's nobody talking about time travel or living on Saturn but if you're a fan of Herman Blount (particularly the album “Lanquidity”) there's plenty here to keep you interested.
(Collective Zine)
The musical qualities of Atkins solo are usually to be found in electronic music, but he also is active in the world of improvised music, having already recorded two albums with Paul May, a drummer and player of percussive textures. They extended their duo playing into a group called Shaded Monocle, in which they play with others. Here, on 'Lit By Talons', they play with Carolyn Hume on piano and Simon Kobayashi on guitar, while Atkins takes credit for electronics and field recordings. Its not so much a quartet recording, as well as using recordings by Hume and Kobayashi, which are cut, looped, processed and used in a duo recording of May and Atkins. Five pieces of that, and if you wouldn't know better, you could as easily think that this is indeed a playing together for four persons, with perhaps someone live altering the sounds of the other three. Quite jazzy at times, reminding me of some of the stuff played by Spartak, but perhaps all a bit more electronic. More or less conventionally improvised, but no doubt a very recording as such. Five pieces, twenty minutes, which I think is probably the right length of such a thing, at least for me it is.
(Vital Weekly)
credits
released September 1, 2011
Paul May - Drums & Percussion
Carolyn Hume - Piano
Simon Kobayashi - Guitar
Matthew Atkins - Electronics and track constructions
MRMCDR17
MRM is a DIY label for experimental music curated by Matt
Atkins, a London based sound and visual artist whose principle interests are reductionism, chance, repetition and texture. He uses objects, percussion instruments, occasionally a laptop and cassette recorders to create sound collages in both the recorded medium and live....more
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