Some albums get your brain working. You’ll plant some conceptual seed in your mind, and you start thinking or even philosophizing. It depends on the planted seed, how your brain works, mental (dis)abilities, and, oh yeah, the amount of coffee you had that day.
Sonic art
Some albums get your brain working. You’ll plant some conceptual seed in your mind, and you start thinking or even philosophizing. It depends on the planted seed, how your brain works, mental (dis)abilities, and, oh yeah, the amount of coffee you had that day. So when I started listening to this album after 6 cups, my brain went into overtime, and I just couldn’t stop having the weirdest thoughts.
Math is a language in which numbers are letters and equations are words with incorrect grammar. Longer sequences of numbers are difficult words with a specific meaning. Due to what we learned, or know, or our background, different words have different meanings. The English ‘rust‘ is oxidized metal, and the Dutch ‘rust‘ is rest. But ‘rest‘ in English and Dutch can mean ‘leftover‘. But ‘666‘ in any language will be directly connected to the Bible and the number of the beast, while it loses its strength when it’s used in an endless sequence where it deteriorates to sicksicksicksicks … Wasn’t it a Current 93 track with the lyrics “Sick Sick Sick of Six Six Six“?
This is all in my mind; probably, it has nothing to do with the conceptual approach of Jos Smolders on Textuur 1, but it emphasizes what music can do with someone. And THAT, my little droogies, THAT is the power of art and, in this case, sonic art. Jos works with ‘Objects Sonore‘ being soundbites, samples, and grains, and he reworks them into something different. Four collections with basic manipulations and seven permutations where he continues exploring the trajectory given in the previous ‘collection‘. Sounds extrapolated from the most basic sound objects going into rhythmic structures, drones, pads, ambience, minimal noise—all depending on that source and on a lower level then I mentioned before. The ‘t‘ in two or three becomes the structured ‘t.t.t.t.t.t.t‘ while the ‘s‘ in seven creates ‘sssssssss.’It’s a different language—a meta-language if you want—where it’s not math that is the language, but where it’s the letters that are used to form the words that are the language; are the basics to create art. With this in mind, the sequence of “Collection 1” is 1(2)234(8)7(2)55(6). Does this have a meaning? Or is it as random as the aleatoric works of Brian Eno?
This is Part #1 of a triptych, with Parts #2 and #3 recently being released on Cronica. I suggest getting all three of them (I still need #3) so you can finalize the circle. Amazingly beautiful in all its beautiful layers, those mentioned in the liner notes and those added by your mind. Eleven out of ten stars.
Review by: Bauke van der Wal / Vital Weekly #1444. Reprinted with permission.
Textuur 1 [number 1-9] is available on Moving Furniture. [Bandcamp]
