Somewhere in the past, I am trying to remember when or on which occasion I wrote in a review something about granular synthesis being sampling on a microcellular level. And I wondered where granular synthesis ends and sampling begins. The whole micro/macro approach of dimensions can be drawn into this discussion, and with a nice glass of wine and a few creative minds, you could probably end up spending night after night on subjects like these. And why am I regurgitating this thought? Well, in the promo text of the new album by Jos Smolders, he refers to something that is about the same but in a different context. ‘Pierre Schaeffer investigated where sounds start and end and where the applicability of sounds start and end. Schaeffer introduced the term objet sonore as an object with a sonic quality of its own. In addition, he also defined the objet musicale, which is the state after the sound object is manipulated and transformed into a musical entity.’ The text continues: “One could say that the objet sonore is the raw material and the objet musicale the intermediate or the final product.”
These thoughts formed the basics of what will be a trilogy/triptych of textures. And no, “Textures And Mobiles” from 2004 is NOT the first in the series, so it’s not a tribute to Cage’s “ASLSP,” where we have to wait another 20 years for part 3. And yes, this is #2, but relax, breathe in, breathe out. You haven’t missed #1; it will simply be released later.
In one hour, Jos covers the spectrum of different styles. As far as you can go with ‘objets musicale’, this album is a professor lecture, if there ever was one. It features beautiful sound structures, musically intense compositions, and variations from minimalism, drone, experiments, and ambience to even—dare I say it—techno-ish things. Two essential tracks, Collection 1 and 2 and Permutations A through J, complete a full hour of what we like about Jos’ music.
To conclude: The minimalist sounds we hear aren’t minimalist. It’s not a particular frequency singular waveform or a standard white or coloured noise … Hell no. Jos knows what he is doing sound-wise, and in its minimalism lies the strength of its complexity. Or the other way around, but believe me, it’s really hard to design sounds that sound simple on the outside but so complex on the inside. Knowing Jos and having seen him perform live on several occasions, I can only say he excels in his field of expertise. Gorgeous release. (BW)
via Vital Weekly