S.H. Kingston on Hjorten - Travel.
June 7th, 2008.
It's hard to tell where someone is going with a release that starts with field recordings of a train going down the tracks, and when the artist starts looping segments of it repeatedly, with steady pans throughout, you really gotta wonder. But somehow its totally amazing. I would have to believe there is a good amount of inspiration drawn from some of the old Dutch tape artists and Concretists. Using the aforementioned train recordings and ambient sounds (people talking and busying around, clanking of the tracks, old dial style phone ringing?, etc) creates an atmosphere that the ears can relate to a real concept.
Even when the sounds are vari-speeded too slow, creating a dense, rumbling cloud; or conversely speed up too much, making the sounds into a shrill, chirping loop, there is still something about the sounds that are familiar and warm. The choice of sounds are incredible, lending themselves very well to layering as well as looping. It's pretty obvious that great care was taken to assure that none of the sounds wash each other out in their frequency range.
Hjorten's use of stereo panning gets to be too much on certain loops, and yanks away the pseudo-reality created. The panning is not dramatic, but it is artificial, and considering the material's organic nature, it doesn't fit in. Stereo recording would aid in a more natural panning and sense of field space; hopefully next time!
The resulting feeling of "Travel" is one of surrealism, disorientation and disarray, though the pieces seem to have structure and sense in the way they are composed. Like alot of European experimentalists, I don't get negative or positive impressions/vibes from the material; it seems as though the sounds are there to speak for themselves. Whatever emotion is perceived would be brought by the listener.
June 7th, 2008.
It's hard to tell where someone is going with a release that starts with field recordings of a train going down the tracks, and when the artist starts looping segments of it repeatedly, with steady pans throughout, you really gotta wonder. But somehow its totally amazing. I would have to believe there is a good amount of inspiration drawn from some of the old Dutch tape artists and Concretists. Using the aforementioned train recordings and ambient sounds (people talking and busying around, clanking of the tracks, old dial style phone ringing?, etc) creates an atmosphere that the ears can relate to a real concept.
Even when the sounds are vari-speeded too slow, creating a dense, rumbling cloud; or conversely speed up too much, making the sounds into a shrill, chirping loop, there is still something about the sounds that are familiar and warm. The choice of sounds are incredible, lending themselves very well to layering as well as looping. It's pretty obvious that great care was taken to assure that none of the sounds wash each other out in their frequency range.
Hjorten's use of stereo panning gets to be too much on certain loops, and yanks away the pseudo-reality created. The panning is not dramatic, but it is artificial, and considering the material's organic nature, it doesn't fit in. Stereo recording would aid in a more natural panning and sense of field space; hopefully next time!
The resulting feeling of "Travel" is one of surrealism, disorientation and disarray, though the pieces seem to have structure and sense in the way they are composed. Like alot of European experimentalists, I don't get negative or positive impressions/vibes from the material; it seems as though the sounds are there to speak for themselves. Whatever emotion is perceived would be brought by the listener.