This mini-album was released to coincide with “microscopic” American sound artist Taylor Deupree’s recent trip to Australia, and contains just three tracks. Deupree has stated that: “timelessness, nature, understatement, and simplicity of form are key to my aesthetic,” and indeed, this deceptively simple statement contains the key to understanding the music on this release.
The overall feel is of pastoral ambience – very reminiscent of the bucolic melancholia of Eno’s On Land, or the cool minimalistic feel of Music for Airports. Opening track ‘Landing’ is strongly reminiscent of Eno’s ‘2/2’ from the latter album – suspended chords are suggested and resolved in a cyclical pattern, as bass guitar and electric guitar notes sound out and hang in the foreground, and gentle pings and pulses peal over aqueous drips and entomic drones.
On ‘Seep’, warm keyboard washes support shimmering high end drone figures. In the background dull percussive clicks prevent the piece from flying away completely into the ether. Closing track ‘Field’ features warm gloopy sounds in the foreground, and the familiar sustained high end sounds, again with more fine detail apparent on each listen.
These are beautiful, delicate paintings in sound – evoking perhaps morning sun, bare trees and snow, in a rural winter landscape. These are the works of a sonic Hokusai.
Ewan Burke
