Encounter is a sprawl in days of daze, a wallow in hollow, a mope in murk; it suffers gradual dissolution in a torpor of spectral wafts, a recursive refraction of particles; a tired but teeming tide that seems to represent emotional evacuation…
The development and implementation of a plan integrating principles, practices and techniques of care to maintain the health and vigor of the environment so as to provide the products and affordances desired. Forest Management concerns care and a feel for landscape which is shared by John Daniel, who has more to do with silviculture than name alone; for him, it’s an inner landscape that’s mediated via a drone base not on google maps, but Cathedral Transmissions (The Contemplative Life), Twice Removed (Sky Image) or Death Rehearsal (Reservation). On his latest sylvan enterprise, Encounter, Daniel’s drones pulsate pacifically with precise periodicity, and a pile which, were it a rug, would be miles deep, though with a touch of cold prickle playing over its warm fuzz.
As a narrative, Encounter is a sprawl in days of daze, a wallow in hollow, a mope in murk; it suffers gradual dissolution in a torpor of spectral wafts, a recursive refraction of particles; a tired but teeming tide that seems to represent emotional evacuation, emptied signifiers, a comfort of numbness, ranging from a winsome sub-symphonic mien akin to a chilled Celer to the slightly doleful doldrums of a brighter Deathprod. “Memory Internal,” slow and deliberate, is frayed at the edges with reverb and processing fuzz. “The World Frozen On A Screen” emits an airy pulse with an unheimlich undercurrent that resonates with proxy virtual memory and alienated drift. Consonance blooms bearing seeds of dissonance: “Artificial Emotions (Relapse),” riven with strange abrasions, “Memory External,” a-hum with distant rumble. Light warm body with a dusky froth, encounter veiled. “Top Floor View / 1.75″ traverses clearer views, still with a hooded quality to its gaze. “Closer Than You Think” pulses and oscillates with a density and heft, each warped drone surge an appeal to a warmth that’s somehow errant, seldom felt. Throughout Forest Management is conducted with a sense of affective and sonic space–big but intimate.
In sum, Encounter is a deceptively soft immersion in a sweetly scented woe bath, a steeping in melancholy, elegy, and threnody in remotion. For ‘a common thread of sounds found in my own personal music library, and the resulting images, feelings, and mind-states I have come to most appreciate.’ (FM, soundcloud page), see the artist’s “Fluorescent Mix” for futuresequence and “Selections for a Winter Jacket” Fluid Radio mix.
Encounter is available on Martinson.
