Maybe you have been reading Vital Weekly for such a long time that when you read the name David Lee Myers you will automatically think ‘Arcane Device’, which was his moniker from the late 80s to the mid 90s, followed by a retirement. In recent years however he revived Arcane Device, as well as releasing music under his own name, and all of that using the principles of feedback. Take the output of the mixer, put it into the input and a high piercing sound will emerge; that’s feedback. That’s what Myers does, but not just like that. He feeds his sound through ‘other processors, via a series of matrix mixers’ and he plays around in real time with the results and you could think it results in a barrage of noise, but it doesn’t. Obviously this is not the kind of music that is very ‘soft’ either, but in the eleven pieces Myers recorded in the past two years he works with a fine sensibility for textures. It owes as much to the world of serious electronic music from the sixties as it does to the world of short song structures, to avoid the word ‘pop music’. Obviously it has nothing to do with pop music, but in keeping
his pieces within the four-five minutes he explores a few sounds and a movement or two, and plays around with that, exploring the possibilities and changes before moving on to the next setting. It is at times the subtle variation of ambient music (Eno would no doubt love those self-generating sounds), with a fine rough edge and Myers doesn’t explore his materials ad infinitum, but he let’s go easily.
There is so much more to explore, I guess. I enjoyed his work back then, from the noise to the ambient side of it, and this new work is just as good. Maybe these days with a somewhat melancholic touch to it, but the gentler side, without leaping into endless variations, suits him very well. Excellent modern compositions! (FdW)
via Vital Weekly