Talvihorros & Matthew Collings – A Thousand Plateaus

This short four track EP, released on a limited edition 3″ CDr and digital download as part of hibernate Postcard series, collects pieces for Talvihorros and Matthew Collings‘ headline tour of September 2011. Fluctuating between incoming waves of sound and receding plateaus of silence, the duo experiment with contrasting textures, dynamics, and atmospheres. The growling bass falls back into stillness, allowing the distant echoing of a crow softly seep in. Lo-fi treatments are overlayed on acoustic instrumentation, at times in howling distortion, at times in beautiful bass clarinet sighs. In the past, Ben Chatwin has recorded under his Talvihorros moniker for Rural Colours, hibernate, and most recently Denovali Records, while Matthew Collings slowly began to pique my attention with his debut solo release, Splintered Instruments (Fluid Audio, 2013) and his project with Euan McMeeken, called Graveyard Tapes. On A Thousand Plateaus, the two musicians tease us with a 20-minute taste of their collaborative work, which was produced by bouncing ideas over the internet. I wish I could have caught this show live. Or better yet, perhaps the duo will think about releasing a full-length collaboration.