Artfully as ever, with visuals—blotchy black and grainy grey photos, a figure walking down the middle of a city street, run-down buildings and other urban lowlights—mirroring the music’s doleful air.
Go Straight To The Light Of All That You Love finds Andrew Hargreaves—of The Boats, Beppu et al.—as Tape Loop Orchestra in typically pensive mode, hymning ‘the artist’s continual search… searching for miracles, or simply an answer to the metaphysical why…’ it seeks to interrogate ‘the contradictory dualism in the life that inspires art‘ with nods to ‘the panoramic influence of Ozu, Neuer Deutscher Film, Weldon Kees and Yves Klein’ and the philosophical strands in In Search Of The Miraculous, Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader’s document of his intended trio of art actions, Gurdjieff’s early teachings and P.D. Ouspensky’s book on them.
Recorded after development in live performance, as is TLO’s wont, apparently using a new approach of multi-track control over trademark tape disintegration for the first time, GSTTLOATYL is trailed as ‘a landmark intersection of music and visual media’ (no hype then!). It departs somewhat from the dusty heart-string tug of his last TLO full-length, In a Lonely Place, though it can be seen as a spiritual successor in its blending of euphonic minimalism and tonal poesis. Though warmer tones and layers are incorporated, making for a less overwrought and eroded experience than IALP, ‘distortions are inherent to representation’ remains an audio-visual keynote. Split into two 20-minute pieces, the first, “Go Straight Towards The Light” starts dissonant, as if a residue of IALP, folds in sombre cascades, then lets darkness and decay cede to string and synth serenade; an eerie drift of treated voices, then transition to a final string-driven movement, oscillating wildly into dissolve. “Of All That You Love” starts in similar dissonance, configuring itself into a haunting downcast affair; string sweeps and synth warmth shimmer through it, negotiating settlements with vestigial dissonance.
Assists come from Beth Roberts, aus and Cuushe, with the ubiquitous James Plotkin editing and mastering; and Dan Crossley of Fluid Audio/Facture, who curates GSTTLOATYL, artfully as ever, with visuals—blotchy black and grainy grey photos, a figure walking down the middle of a city street, run-down buildings and other urban lowlights—mirroring the music’s doleful air.
Go Straight To The Light Of All That You Love is available on Facture
