Consistently unexpected and interesting, and definitely not for the angst driven, this collection of odd bits of audio phenomena tell stories that are not like anything pertaining to speaking.
Woven repurposed moments
John the Silent is a collector and recycler of obsolete sounds, sketches—attempts at hunting and gathering. He harvests beauty and tranquility in sonic forms, here are textures and patterns that are fine listening matter. John says not one word through all of this album, from go, all the way to fade. There is no hurry, there is room to float and enjoy this imaginative expansive field of woven repurposed moments.
“Over the past years, the artist has collected obsolete ipads and tablets, in an attempt to reduce waste, but also work within limits to make art. Their occasional live set consists of an improvisational composition of sounds, field recordings, and ambient textures blended and manipulated by the artist for a unique experience each time.” ~Somewherecold
This provides a great deal of texture and mystery, which goes into the air around and nearby.
Starting off with a skipping percussive loop, “All Hail the Monarch (Butterfly)” (4:49) builds in layers of field recordings, bird calls and kids in a field, possibly a melodica hopper anchors the tune as the flutter-by breezes blow the flow, light and bouncy, visiting each flower in the garden on a sunny bright day.
The word Mungo means an old fabric that has been used for a new purpose. This track has very few elements but all of them are moving enough to keep it interesting as they cycle through their patterns. “MUNGO)” (6:04) emerges as a sustained tone layered on top of some motion. Ear-guessing inventory: organ, radio-ish static, squiggles, airport tarmac reverberations, odd things come and go.
An Eagle Ray is a marine animal that lives in the open ocean rather than lingering on the sea bottom, “Myliogatinae” (5:28) is the scientific name for this gliding and soaring master of the sea. I hear a hushed glowing engine purring with organ-ish overtone drones, as we go along the purring builds slightly into throbbing. There are ample gentle atmospheric mysteries that sustain and ripple ever so slightly, the organ sparkles and then fades back into the throbbing mix.
There is a colorless, odorless reactive gas common to all the air where life, as we understand it, is supported, with the atomic number of 8. “Oxygen” (6:37) opens with one note that holds and then sort of crinkles into wider atmospherics, somewhere the sound becomes more piano-ish, notes holding and crinkling with cricket-ish drone tones, and by the end things are getting almost busy, but not really.
The fifth track, “She Slew as She Slang” (6:51) is the dance number (ha ha) there is a beat, sort of at heart rate, all lub but no dub. Basketball dribbles have drama, this has consistency, otherwise there are tonic similarities. Soon there is a tone drone and slowly new things fade in, there are some interesting minimal clues of sonic events, such as denser textures, cymbals, gym noises, glowing machines running (or simulated) using plastic devices. Now I think I hear a keyboard experimenting with different ways of touching the notes, things change and the whole thing starts to strip down to the tone drone again, one note does all the work, one long sustained note.
There is a form, which sounds to me like a machine running, chain clank loop motor purr. “Third Shift Daydream” (4:56), chords on a piano hit and hold, I am searching for a way to describe the modal pattern, sort of a minimal blues progression, slowly drifting, a sustained routine. Chunk, clunk, repeat, then the piano gets melodic (almost) and fades back to motor purr.
This machine running concept is continued, add cymbals, cycle through patterns of growing density then sustain then fade then repeat, add new instruments, “True Friend Fight Song” (5:34), is that a glockenspiel? Chime bings or little bells decorate the steady pattern as it cycles through those layers of building density and release, and there is ample ringing reverb during the outro.
Building like a sunrise, slowly and steadily ::
For the climax or concluding episode, building like a sunrise, slowly and steadily, a sense of wonder and emerging details become visible, a new gentle drone tone builds. “Water” (6:50) is another version of oxygen, once found almost everywhere here on our one and only planet. Things are coming along, more is happening, just below the surface, somewhere in there I hear a piano note, another piano note, now there are bubble-ish noises coming into definition. Eventually I think I hear more sounds of water moving through pipes or just hissing, the density of the mix is almost getting busy, fade out.
Consistently unexpected and interesting, and definitely not for the angst driven, this collection of odd bits of audio phenomena tell stories that are not like anything pertaining to speaking. John the Silent is physically based in Indiana, but his name makes me think of St. John the Silent, whose surname was given him from his love of silence and recollection. That John the Silent was born at Nicopolis in Armenia, in the year 454. He blew his inheritance on founding a church and monastery, where he shut himself up when only eighteen years of age, with the intention of making the salvation and most perfect sanctification of his soul his only and earnest pursuit, directing to this end all his thoughts and endeavors.
Meanwhile in Indiana, this new album is the third LP of ambient/experimental art, leaning into a more essential, improvisational exploration of sound and texture. “I’ve really been influenced by the immediacy of, well, actually experimental jazz artists like The Necks, but also some of the minimalist, truly ‘moment’ based work of artists like Lawrence English and, well, so much on Room 40, I just wanted to move in that direction and see what happened.”
“Mungo Sessions also is a departure from previous works in that it is recorded completely in MONO, through an analog mixer, and manipulated live in studio. The result is an exploration in frequencies and resonance melding to create surprising new sounds.”
Somewherecold Records: A record label, releasing cassettes, CDs, and vinyl concentrating on the sorts of music covered at http://somewherecold.net. “There’s a chill in the air…”
What is to be found at Somewherecold Records has been described as “slocore, ambient, experimental, shoegaze, post rock, etc.” and pursues a natural quest to find and share with others the unique and specific kind of listening that they treasure. Starting in 2001 by Brent Diaz, Somewherecold began as an online music magazine. Things happened, activity, silence and adjustments, recovery from disaster, discovery of hidden files assumed to be lost (sounds like me too) and in 2016 Somewherecold became reincarnated with a certain legacy as well as a renewed intention, to connect bands with listeners. “Finding and interacting with bands we love and sharing those bands with others brings us joy and we are continuing that tradition here. We also still believe in the ‘album.’ We know that bands and artists think carefully about the order of tracks on an album to create an ebb and flow, emphasize peaks and valleys, tell stories, and the like. We want to respect and acknowledge that effort. Further, we hope our writing and care for the art we write about reflects the respect we have for the time and effort the bands and artists put into their craft. We attempt to ‘listen’ to the best of our ability. We will never capture in words the force and impact of music even though we will try to the best of our abilities.”
Editor Jason Lamoreaux obtained his Ph.D. and has published a couple of books and a handful of articles in his field. He also teaches at the college level. In terms of music, Jason has started recording his own music under the moniker The Corrupting Sea. He has been involved with Somewherecold since around 2003 and is grateful to its original owner Brent Diaz for passing the torch. Dakota Lamoreaux is the site framework visionary and social media shepherd, as well as a college student and a competitive swimmer. Lastly Phil heroically supports the hosting technologies.
See all: Experiment, ambient, dread. See more. Listen carefully. “It’s our primary goal.”
Mungo Sessions is available on Somewherecold April 22, 2022. [Bandcamp]
