(05.04.05) Ryan Teague’s debut release, Six Preludes, is the second in Type’s EP series, following what was one of the finest releases of 2004 – Deaf Center’s Neon City EP. But Type is an eclectic label and Six Preludes could scarcely be more different to its predecessor: where Neon City was a work of blissful ambient beauty and tranquility, Six Preludes is a rigorously composed, densely layered and challenging mix of modern classical and electronic music. Teague apparently grew up listening to classical music but has no interest in standard classical composition, preferring instead to explore the possibilities that arise from the fusion of acoustic and orchestral instruments and electronic music. Proficient on piano, clarinet and guitar, Teague has also brought in session musicians for Six Preludes to broaden the sonic palette to include violin, cello and vocal arrangements.
What Teague has skillfully created is something far more diverse and arresting than might be expected given the above parameters: six highly intense pieces that take classical instruments as a backbone and infuse them with a bold, brash and dizzying array of electronic filtering, extreme textures and piercing, splintered shards of feedback and scorched synth parts.
“Prelude I” is an extremely dense piece, making for an almost overwhelming introduction to Teague’s almost confrontational style: swathes of warm strings swell and stutter; hollow, drafty wind effects and wailing, almost metallic pads sear the upper and lower registers; Chloe Leaper’s distant, soprano vocals echo and reverberate, as if from another dimension, through a glittering portal showered with tiny, tinkling bells.
The rather more languid “Prelude II” layers modulation scoured strings over field recordings and a high-pitched whining reminiscent of the squealing of dilapidated iron gates swinging on old, rusty hinges, the whole of which is sucked through a dry vortex of distortion just as the strings begin to deepen and warm, emerging on the other side to be joined by crisp, piercing sine-waves. “Prelude III” is unusual by virtue of the fact that it is almost totally devoid of warm sounds. Everything has been freeze-dried, from the odd, difficult to identify percussion, reminiscent of harshly plucked guitar strings combined with a kalimba-like instrument to the stuttering strings, piano chords and the peculiar, growling and dry-as-paper synth touches. It is as if the whole is being heard through the trumpet of an antique gramophone.
“Prelude IV” is both chilling and sinister: ear-piercing, glass-shattering feedback threatens to smother the string arrangements and scraping, industrial electronic enhancements, and mid-way through the piece transforms to the tune of a creepy, abandoned music box that plays over the now heavily filtered classical instrumentation that finally resolves into the sounds of industrial machinery. “Prelude V” is a more minimal and overtly classical affair than the others, layering dry clarinet with violin and cello and would offer some relief from the intensity of its predecessor if its moods weren’t so tense and uneasy.
Only “Prelude VI,” the shortest and most electronic of the six, allows the user some moments to relax, closing the EP in a very different, Bola-esque style to its predecessors. The brief opening movement contains the first genuinely warm piano melodies heard on the EP, together with more feedback effects, but this quickly transforms into a gorgeous, swirling mélange of bubbling bass lines, cool, sci-fi synthesizer effects and soft melodies again scoured by more high-pitched drones. A brief pause reveals a small bonus piece right at the end that contains more of the wheezing industrial field-recordings that closed “Prelude IV.”
With entries as strong and unusual as this, Type’s EP series looks set to continue defying genres and expectations. Six Preludes is clearly a highly personal work, a singular experience that assaults the senses in various and unusual ways the result of which is a never less than fascinating, and often quite exhausting journey into the realms and possibilities of electronically enhanced modern classical composition. Highly recommended.
Limited to 600 copies only, Six Preludes is out now on Type.
