This release contains three tracks: two takes of Frasch's 'a moment in my day', performed by Brice Catherine (cello, objects), Eleanor Cully (voice, objects) and Ryoko Akama (organ, objects) and a lengthy reading of Akama's 'for heather's day', realized by Frasch (field recordings, objects, electronics). The pieces were originally text compositions, one by each composer sent to the other for realization. Both are wonderful.
The Frasch works, recorded by Akama, evince an immediate sense of embeddedness, the instruments creating a low, rough and grainy drone inside an active space filled with an airy hum and soft rustles and taps. Soon, the organ tones become paler, almost translucent, as the other aspects acquire a scrabbling, nervous character, imparting a sense of slowly wandering through an eerie landscape. The density of the sound fluctuates throughout, often settling into a spare, though tonal, area, a cello plucking gently, an electronic tone wafting alongside, softly spoken words. The second take of the piece has a bit more sonic immediacy, the strings sharper, the voice perhaps more hesitant and anxious. The effect is different, more tense, but just as striking.
'a moment in my day' plunges the listener directly into a sonically rich environment, full of train track sounds, very much a three-dimensional space. The sounds attenuate into high-pitched, sine-like tones and thin, wooden clicks, before thickening once more into a mechanical sounding sphere, quite dense, immersive and endlessly fascinating. This ebb and flow continues throughout the 40-minute work, maintaining a certain sameness of environs while always introducing subtly new elements and combinations of sound. Frasch pieced together this realization of Akama's score from several recordings; the integration is masterfully constructed. There's a great tensile strength in the work, a strong sense of place and acute observation.
An excellent, imaginative and deep recording.
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