(October 2009) FOR a number of years Entr’acte have been delving into the distant undercurrents of experimental and abstract music. Entr’acte translates from the French as the period between two acts. In English the word used is intermission. However, the French interpretation perhaps holds better for the work of this label. The London imprint crosses the divides of mechanic glitch, silent noise and synthesizer constructs. Recently Entr’acte have managed to pull together two innovative artists on the forgotten format of the tape cassette: Kallabris and Legowelt.
Kallabris’ input onto the mini release is entitled Inbetween The Sound Sound. The artist, Michael Anacker, has been experimenting with electronics for more than twenty years now, and his tinkling with sound has continued onto Entr’acte. Abstract is one way to describe Inbetween The Sound Sound. On finding somewhere to play this tape, a friend’s Passat estate tape deck is recommendable for a first listen but not whilst in drive, it is difficult to tell if the track is actually playing. Silence interspersed with brittle pangs originally emerge from the speakers, before something more builds and some measure of composition forms. It is interesting, a curio that broaches the realm of music and silence that get the inquisitive juices flowing for the next side. Legowelt’s “The Occult Animals Of Silicon Valley” is a much more conservative affair, that is to say in comparison to Kallabris’ atonal abstractions. Mr Wolfers has taken his vintage synthsizers and turned them to soundtrack mode, creating a worrying work in a haunted Morricone style. The track is dark, but not menacing, perfect for a moody mix of reclaimed OST’s. It has been a style that Legowelt has bee cultivating for some time and one which he appears to be excelling in.
From the Entr’acte back catalogue Legowelt, and his synthesizer obsession, seems to be the main tether to planet earth, the label’s other entrants float and lose their listener in an ocean of electric ambience. Artists such as Filter Feeder and hamaYôko take the headphone encased phononaut into their worlds of blip, fuzz, plink and all-round abstraction. Warming tones are crushed by brutal aural alienation before waves of neon pulse wash over across the imprint’s history. Strings, synths, tape slices, anything is a possible conduit for these launches into the stratosphere of audio strangeness. Experimentation is the name of the experiment, with sound being the instruments of this sonic science class.
Entr’acte is that period between episodes. The label has uprooted the unknown silence and given it a voice, a disparate one but a voice nonetheless. This imprint has looked at what is there but never spoken of, the quiet uneasiness that is ever present in sound but rarely heard. Rather than ignore this disregarded semi-silence Entr’acte have printed it up and let the masses deal with it. A music for the disaffected or the disenfranchised is not the product of this in-between sound, it is what it is for whoever is there to hear it. Entr’acte have succeeded in creating something for the silent partner of the monologue, a listener ever present and ever captive in his inability to reply. Entr’acte have given this perpetual eavesdropper a sound, one which he cannot comment on –not only bridging the gap, but leaving it open for all to see.
For more information on Entr’acte, visit their website at entracte.co.uk.
