A collection of cameos rendered in feathery tones and dusty pitches by Todd Gautreau aka Tapes and Topographies, Plumage‘s sonorities, languorously looping and limned in treated effluvia, point to timbral and spatial elements as its primary zone of sonic inquiry.
Rendered in feathery tones and dusty pitches
A collection of cameos rendered in feathery tones and dusty pitches by Todd Gautreau aka Tapes and Topographies, Plumage‘s sonorities, languorously looping and limned in treated effluvia, point to timbral and spatial elements as its primary zone of sonic inquiry. The precise detail of the eponymous concept’s translation via musical semiosis is the most involving, if not the only one, of several qualities of this seventeenth (by my reckoning) T&T set.
Plumage renews Gautreau’s remote-emotive mission in the lineage of Modalities (Simulacra, 2022) A Season of Loss (Simulacra, 2021), A Pulse of Durations (Past Inside the Present, 2020) and previous Dronarivm, Whitelabrecs and Shimmering Moods. The lighter tenor of the preceding minimal synth-infused Microtones (Simulacra, 2023) is eschewed on opener “appears in soft focus” and mid-point “ghost ship” in favor of a shadier sonic catchment area, though “wanderlust” and “the clouds and the briars” seek clearer resolution interstitially, as do the pacific pianisms of “asleep in mirrors.” While “Submerge” strains towards consonance, something somewhat less than salubrious is prone to creep into T&T’s palette of audio-captures (see the spectral “illuminate”). Eventually oneiric tones evocative of water and its motion, previously hinted at, become more overt (“on your broken wave”), positively saturating the closing “partial scan” for a nocturnal navigation in somnific flux.
All in all, Plumage is a haunting, and haunted, affair of discreet cadence and glacial cascade with masterful mastering from Andrea Porcu, capo of Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ’s parent ROHS! Records. And there’s a treat in the shape of Rudiments (early works) for Gautreau-fanciers unfamiliar with his early work as Tear Ceremony (‘American electronic and industrial band fronted by Todd Gautreau […] active in the late 1990s’ and, incidentally, ‘changed his moniker to Sonogram as the music became less dark and more optimistic.’ (thanks, wikipedia)). From an oeuvre comprising a handful of ’90s releases, selected works are compiled, remixed and remastered under the Tapes and Topographies banner, with liner notes by the artist; specifically, 7 tracks from 1998’s Film Decay, 3 from 1999’s Emulsion and 2 from 1997’s Resin (all Simulacra). Whether these be considered works of a proto- or embryonic entity (TC) from which the current artist (T&T) is an evolution or merely a continuation, Rudiments is clearly sprung from the same sensibility, possessed of the same eerily ambivalent tenor, and stands on its own merits as a fine exhibit of Gautreau’s art at the interface between ambient experiment and sound design.
Plumage is available on Lᴏɴᴛᴀɴᴏ Series. [Bandcamp]
Rudiments is available on Simulacra. [Bandcamp]
