Stephan Mathieu + Taylor Deupree ‎– Transcriptions

In this amazing collaboration, German based Stephan Mathieu and American proprietor of the lovely 12k label, Taylor Deupree, join forces to create a meditation on transcendence, passing time, decay and history. "Delving deeply into the history of the earliest recording methods through mechanical phonographs, Stephan Mathieu created a method using wax-cylinders, the predecessor of records, as well as 78s, which have a larger frequency range, to create his music through playback of these pieces of musical history. [...] From this result, Taylor Deupree worked with the recordings, adding acoustic instruments and vintage synthesizer; adding-to, while still maintaining the physicality of the 78s, opening the range of the tracks through unalloyed analog contributions." Listening to the first track, "Nocturne", is like eavesdropping on a distant carnival only to be muffled by the constant drone inside my head. As if I'm peering into the outside world from the confinements of a prison cell of sound, occasionally bombarded by audio hallucinations. Multiple layers are fighting to dominate their individual frequency space. One is undeniably organic, while the other is synthetic. A bit atonal in nature, the music is soothing, as if the wind is blowing through digital flutes, singing bowls, and wind chimes. "The result of the century-apart sources combined with the methodology and talent of these two leading experimentalists creates an immutable, impressing magnetism, while still balancing so gently on the vibrations of the decayed, and the frail humanity of the past." Released by the Japanese Spekk, the album lands on my list of Best of 2009 records. Be sure to also pick up Mathieu's Radioland (Die Schachtel, 2008) and Deupree's latest Shoals (12k, 2010). Highly recommended!