Label: Ash International Format: CD
Sourced from field recordings made by Hazard and Chris Watson and reprocessed by Benny Nilsen, Wind takes the sound of that element as it moves across two continents and brings out the drama of nature in an immediate, textural manner. Where the Isolationists drew their analogue/digital interfaces into dense wastes of often desolate structures (a broad generalisation, true), Wind concentrates on the immensity of the chaotic, the actual, definite majesty of one of the more devastating forces of nature. The rumbles and rustles are often in danger of originating at the point of recording, where the physical surface of the microphones become the resonant object in the production of the sound itself. Nilsen is careful to note his and Watson’s selection of the sources, and it is instructive to attend carefully upon the recording process as much as the results.
Still, beyond the practical and technical, which are highly intriguing in themselves, the reproduced sounds take on their own force and form through speakers. How often is a full-tilt Rock effect-pedal workout compared to a wind tunnel or a hurricane? Wind takes the metaphor in new directions; not only are the sources directly relevant, but the results can be too. The air movements are as important as the environment in which they were recorded; the impact of turbulence and tunnelling down ditches, across seas and moorland through the wires stretched between pylons. The inherent danger of devastation raw nature posesses is as much to do with this record as the sounds of the sparrowhawks who make their contribution throughout; and what creatures could be more relevant? Likewise, one session was recorded by Watson in a Glasgow boarding house beside the River Clyde as the whistling through the cracked double glazing disturbed his sleep.
To set the Wind disc spinning is to transform the listening environment, as well as a challenge to amplification. The CD is not merely a selection of environmental sounds, fascinating as that would be; Nilsen’s selection and arrangement draw out and extend the drama and subtleties of texture and documentary sound into something beyond Ambient. The end result is strongly involving, actively impressionistic as a powerful evocation (and identification) of the point where breathable air lifts into audible resonance, and above all the chaotic nature of feedback between environment and participant listener.
-Antron S. Meister-
