| $8.74
back in stock as of
october 3rd, 2008
first in stock on
may 16th, 2004
threads:
minimalism-drones
electro-acoustic-composition
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| | | sigma editions (netherlands) #sigma 008 ep minit “cc / bb” twelve inch single record | torbin and jasmine are two of my favorite people (related but unrelated factoid... torbin was in “garbage & the flowers”, that wasted early 90s new-zealand collective that released their lone single on twisted village). i kept running into them in köln (tonschacht-related bizness) and australia (where they’re based) for a while there but now we haven’t crossed paths for a few years and that’s too bad really as they’re blessed folk...
minit’s unique brand of deep-filter reverberant explosion-emanence, as output from an akai hardware sampler as the two snake around each other twisting knobs in a dimly-lit room, is among my favorite sound-vocabulary sets of recent times. at the time i first discovered their work i would have used the term “sparse” to descrive their oeuvre, but in light of recent developments in “nothing music” (see: sachiko m, bernard günter) i’d be more inclined to use a term like... “dissipated”.
i’ve tried to get this record, arguably their best, in the shop for a while now to no avail, and lo and behold, there’s dion @ the intransitive fest with a bag full of records for mms! (i had asked him maybe 18 months ago if he had any straggler-copies of this otherwise o/p 12” and he pulled through after all this time, thus winning the figurative “an elephant never forgets” award for excellence in the areas of deep cortex-tissue long-term data storage and retrieval”).
these really are the last copies so don’t wink-out. if you enjoyed the minit 7” on tonschacht, this will most certainly flood your arches as included excursions are extended to 12”-side length for full iso-tank immersion... |
| | sigma editions press release... |
| artist minit
title cc / bb
cat. # sigma008
format 12"
duration 32'12”
released 2000
'cc', the 'a' side of minit's first vinyl release on sigma editions, develops through a slow and deliberate build up of subtly differentiated tonal layers. the need to listen with close attention is established in the first seconds through a scarcity of elements: simply a single regulated pulse, clear and insistent, repeated amid a barely perceptible atmospheric hum. the track then unfolds through a sub-division of this originating loop, quietly branching into a harmonic fifth and double time. and in this, different rhythms emerge and submerge, taking predominance in turns, although it is not clear whether this predominance is occurring within the music, or is determined by your own shifting attentions or your position within the stereo field. eventually comes a twist: out of this fabric of accidental and partial cadences springs a piece of deliberate melody. its beauty is such that you may begin to look forward to this moment when the notes harness themselves into elegant poignancy, in the same way that you wait for the chorus in a pop single. in contradistinction to how one would listen to stripped-back minimalism, actively; here you wait in passive expectation for particular sensations to be delivered to you. study any object which has an element of ornament, and the same relation would be revealed: examining the scratches and anomalies on the smooth silver band of a ring, for example, you come to the emerald or the sapphire. suddenly there is a more familiar beauty laid before you. it is embedded in the whole, but is of a different nature: its nature is to seduce. minit craft enchanting sonic objects. these objects are not difficult in the traditional 'assault' form. the coherent movement between parts which ask for different kinds of attention from the listener, gently fractures 'listening' and signal what is rich and unusual and experimental, not only about this track, but about minit's whole musical project.
on the flip side, 'bb' pulls a startling, almost unimaginable sequence of emotional strings. it comes quickly to fullness, and after a minute or so the orchestral density has reached a wondrous shimmering crescendo, from which it descends with immense gravitational force. the plummet is seemingly endless. when you don't suppose it can go down further it does, and all the while transforming. it becomes sparser, but also murkier, fuzzier, less distinct. slowly, what was previously sustained begins to waver, becoming erratic and feeble. the internal dynamics of the piece are almost more bodily than musical - pulses, flows, quivers, tremors. the world seems to be retreating as it does when consciousness is slipping away. the downward motion is so long and gradual that you become lost in it, less sure of its direction. has it pulled up? plateaued? at some point it does steady into suspension, and fills out mid-air with a singing high pitch and random percussion. however, the mood is still one of the depths. if one was trying to imagine the unconscious of instruments and sounds they posses innately rather than those they produce when played, 'bb' might help.
- anna sanderson, 2000 |
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