Five tracks of somewhat dark atmospheric exposures, ranging from just over five minutes to almost eleven minutes in duration. Most of the action is perhaps within the realm of atmospheric drone arts but there are some shocking incidents that give an enlightening bump to the constant listener.
Within the realm of atmospheric drone arts but there are some shocking incidents
Stark and at times disruptive, the sound machines and birds bring together a natural field atmospheric soundscape, as well as some odd buzzing and some brutal experimental collages. Five tracks of somewhat dark atmospheric exposures, ranging from just over five minutes to almost eleven minutes in duration. Most of the action is perhaps within the realm of atmospheric drone arts but there are some shocking incidents that give an enlightening bump to the constant listener.
Caldon Glover said that the name “Bird Machine” is just a phrase that popped up while playing, and it doesn’t have any deeper meaning although I suppose the results of the recording exist somewhere between the song of a bird and the hum of the wires it’s perched on. Glover (also known as Azfarat) is a doom industrial/ambient musician, “kitchen witch, and aspiring swamp creature, living in the cold woods of Vermont.” They began making music by chopping up samples with waveform editors like Garageband and Magix before moving on to software synthesizers and finally hardware, and became part of a new generation of young queer sound artists working within the dark ambient music movement.
“Through a combination of self motivation and generally being broke, I taught myself how to record, mix, and master my own music as well as music and film projects from people I collaborate with. I specialize in atmospheric electronic music and currently produce under my own name, Caldon Glover, as well as my much darker industrial ambient alter ego Azfarat. That’s me.”
Sculpting complex drones, and playing agile melodies ::
For Bird Machine Glover recently got ahold of a Chromaplane, a synthesizer by Passparteoutduo and Koma Electronics that emphasizes human interaction with a fairly simple interface. The Chromaplane is an electromagnetic synthesizer that is played using two electromagnetic pickup coils, that are moved over its surface to listen to a cloud of electromagnetic fields produced by the instrument. The instrument is fully analog and polyphonic, this makes the instrument ideal for both sculpting complex drones, and playing agile melodies.
“At first I thought this design would severely limit the sound palette of the instrument but the more time I spent with it I found a world of small intricacies in the way the oscillators played with and against each other as well as with the movement or (attempted) stillness of my body. I felt the instrument, played deliberately, had a great deal of potential for deep listening ALA Pauline Oliveros. For Bird Machine I decided on a whim to start recording music using only the Chromaplane, recording directly to tape using a 4 track recorder. The process took probably three times longer than recording digitally, and I had to be a lot more deliberate about what I was playing, and the sound quality is piss poor, but I love the results and I loved removing the process of creating from the digital world for a little while.
“Post production was minimal, mixing, mastering, and I added some nature recordings from my archive and some minimal reverb to stitch the sound together.” They are self releasing this because it falls somewhat outside of the usual sound palette, and feels a little more personal that the more bombastic stuff they have released on Cryo Chamber, which includes contributing to numerous collaborations and such solo titles as The Barren Gospel, Eternal Night Radio, Metrophagy, and Ùir.
Long tones that shift ::
There is a bird. There are several birds a bit further off. Enter a buzzing sound, “BM Part 1” (5:06) wherein the buzz might become a laid back impressionistic drone. I sense an accordion-like instrument. Things happen that make my day, in a quiet way. The next track takes place in a field, the lower tone buzzing sound broadens: “BM Part 2” (8:56). This is a big field, with crickets out there in the distance, being shrill when they are in great numbers. There are birds of course. The buzzing gets growly, then diminishes. Long tones that shift, and the birds, oh but I shouldn’t give it all away.
“BM Part 3” (6:46) bursts in with a fragment of what sounds like a studio session recording backwards (like demons talk in the movies) a guy strumming his folk guitar and saying something, its backwards so who knows. This disruption in the midst of sleepy trance drones is brief and most effective, after the loud abrupt strange incident we are left with a bowed drone and some electronic bleeps and clouds of flicker fragments, throbbing experiments with echo, the birds are off up on the wires overhead making short comments, with a nice balance of hum and clucks. We stay in the field for “BM Part 4” (10:58), with bugs and birds in the distance, strange coyote calls. Here, mystery abounds as the drones sway slowly. Something gets angry towards the end of the track.
We finish in the field, under a higher pitched melodic drone. “BM Part 5” (8:12) has more of a walking-with-the-mic-turned-on drama, my favorite part is dropping a pebble into some water. A crow makes some harsh comments, and the drone machine gets wild. Nothing is happening quickly under these slow drone orchestras.
All music, mixing, mastering, and artwork, by Caldon Glover.
There are 22 Caldon Glover releases available on Bandcamp, such as the Original Score for Vebrook Hostpital for the Reeducation of the Criminally Sane, Livewire Sessions Halloween 2024, Into the Maw, Live at the Century Room (2023), Live at Club Congress 2022, Death Mycelium, Sympathesizer (Remix for The Mercury Tree) [Single], and 15 more.
Bird Machine is available on Bandcamp.
