“Everything Emanating from the Sun” reviewed by Musique Machine

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Crónica presents Everything Emanating from the Sun, a single track CD by Yiorgis Sakellariou. Sakellariou is a long-running experimental composer and musician based out of Athens, Greece. On this outing, he receives some additional sounds courtesy of Simon Whetham and John Grzinich. This release marks the first in a series called Corollaries, compiling works produced during the Active Crossover: Mooste, a cross-cultural collaborative residency curated by Simon Whetham during April/May 2015.
Everything Emanating from the Sun features a single long-form track. Over the span of 31 minutes we are treated to the sounds of: focused drone, field recordings, metallic sounds, and other makeshift instrumentation. The track begins in the ethereal realm with some ambient drone, which progresses to near speaker rattling vibration. Along with the drone appears to be the sounds of a locomotive or subway train, slowed down and stretched out. The track can be broken into segments where particular sounds take the stage only to be replaced by another set of sounds, and on and on. The next set of sounds we hear are the sounds of a laundry dryer spinning and what is perhaps a looped piece of a children¡¯s choir. Those sounds are replaced by what appears to be the field recordings of a beach scene, populated by birds, water, and a creaking wooden dock. Sakellariou continues along with the nature sounds, this time exploring what sounds like a jungle or forest teeming with birds under the cover of rain.

With nearly ¨ø of the disc completed Sakellariou and pals depart from field recordings of nature to metal abuse courtesy of Simon Whetham. Using bowed and beaten sheet metal, this section of the disc features some high end resonance and percussive elements. From there they wind down the track with some xylophonic action (which might be some well played glass bottles) and some manipulated suspension wire that sound akin to synth-like laser blasts. The backdrop of this section sounds like the negative space of an abandoned warehouse. The piece ends with some subtle scraping and clinking, kind of like digging through an old, rusty tool box.

Overall this is an effective collision of sights and sounds, with enough diversity to make this stand out from a myriad of field recording based albums. An excellent first entry in the Corollaries series. I look forward to related releases in the not too distant future. Hal Harmon

via Musique Machine