Label: SN Variations - SN6

ケージやシェルシ、そしてクリス・ワトソンまでと激シブ・ラインナップのリリースを続けている英レーベルSN Variations、その姉妹レーベルであるConstructive、この二つを運営する重要人物のAdrian Corkerの2022年ソロアルバム。Chris Watsonが録音したドラムマシンのハイハットと12人のホワイトノイズ奏者による圧巻のセッション[Adjacencies]、ヴァイオリン奏者Aisha Orazbayevaの演奏に合わせテープで速度を落としたボーカルが並走する[Various Metrics (NLA) II]など、このレーベル関係アーティストのサポートを受け完成させた長編ソロアルバム。非常に良いです。







This is the first long form solo artist release by Corker since 2013. Sounds collected and forgotten about to be then re found and used as seeds of new compositions. Neither acoustic composition nor electroacoustic but somewhere in between, the music was recorded in many different spaces from Japan to Berlin and France, often remotely, whilst finally put together in one room in London. Rooms and our current shifting relationship with them as well as using space as compositional material are some of the focuses of the work here, as well as how acoustic sound can be transformed through physical materials including the spaces themselves.

The first track on the album ‘Various Metrics’ is in two parts. In the first close mic’d recordings of the Ligeti Quartet are juxtaposed against a Minimoog and piano slowed down onto tape before breaking down into an electroacoustic orchestral haze. The second part, the violin played by Aisha Orazbayeva, recorded onto acetate, becomes a percussion instrument sitting on top of sub bass and layered vocals by Josephine Stephenson.

In ‘Adjacencies’ 12 string players playing white noise sits alongside drum machine high hats re-amped and recorded by Chris Watson in a northern ballroom. Sections of field recordings, ensembles, soloists and electronics are juxtaposed against each other. ’9 Spaces’ starts with recordings of electromagnetic fields in a room, again by Chris, against Pascal Wyse’s 1/4 notes on trombone and performances / processing from new Japanese friends Takuma Watanabe and Tatsuhisa Yamamoto.
Both musicians were met virtually during lockdown in the process of releasing Takuma’s ‘Last Afternoon’ album for Corker’s new label Constructive. The piece ends with a coda of tuned metal percussion played over the original demo and left in the recording. ‘Major’ is like an intermission and revisits Corker’s use of locked grooves.

‘Asobu’ and ‘Short and Longer’ are deconstructed percussion pieces using tape processing leaving shards of sound hanging like mobiles in the air. The final piece delivers a string sextet in three sections underpinned by sine waves and timpani. Sound presented almost like three canvases side by side.

The release will also be followed by reworks from TIBSLC (Sferic).