{"id":7610,"date":"2015-04-06T10:51:59","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T09:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/?p=7610"},"modified":"2017-01-02T13:20:07","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T12:20:07","slug":"unfurling-streams-reviewed-by-ambient-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/?p=7610","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfurling Streams\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reviewed by Ambient Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cronica094-2015_520\"<\/a>
\nIf you check the back catalogue of Monty Adkins (which I definitely think you should), you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find that he often chooses a single instrument to work with and then starts exploring its possibilities and manipulating its sounds. And while the starting point and sounds are very different to begin with, he manages to create a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcsound-field\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that is immediately recognisable. Check, for examples, the cello sounds of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Borderlands\u00e2\u20ac\u0153, or the clarinet playing on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Four Shibusa\u00e2\u20ac\u0153.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfurling Streams\u00e2\u20ac\u0153, his recent release on Cr\u00c3\u00b3nica, is based on recordings of percussion instruments made by Jonny Axelsson (a much praised percussionist with impressive experience in playing contemporary music by composers like Stockhausen, Ligeti and Kevin Volans) and Monty Adkins himself.<\/p>\n

The inspiration for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfurling Streams\u00e2\u20ac\u009d comes from the last two lines of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153maggie and milly and molly and may\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by E.E. Cummings – who (according to the notes on poets.org) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153abandoned traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idioyncratic means of poetic expression\u00e2\u20ac\u009d:<\/p>\n

maggie and milly and molly and may
\nwent down to the beach (to play one day)<\/p>\n

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
\nso sweetly she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t remember her troubles, and<\/p>\n

milly befriended a stranded star
\nwhose rays five languid fingers were;<\/p>\n

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
\nwhich raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and<\/p>\n

may came home with a smooth round stone
\nas small as a world and as large as alone.<\/p>\n

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
\nit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always ourselves we find in the sea<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In Unfurling Streams, the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcstream\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reflects life\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsomething continually flowing, evolving, and changing.
\nEddies, currents, pools and spray also are suggestive of ways in which the stream makes its way through the landscape and are clearly reflected in the images and sounds created for this project.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating to hear how the variety of sounds from the percussion instruments \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from sub-low rumble to high-pitched metallic \u00e2\u20ac\u201c resemble a stream of water finding its way.<\/p>\n

With the way he post-processes this material, Monty Adkins creates his characteristic \u00e2\u20ac\u0153slow shifting organic textures\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. However different the original sound sources are, it is this delicate texture that links the album to its predecessors \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Borderlands\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Four Shibusa\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like a sonic trilogy.<\/p>\n

via Ambient Blog<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you check the back catalogue of Monty Adkins (which I definitely think you should), you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll find that he often chooses a single instrument to work with and then starts exploring its possibilities and manipulating its sounds. And while the starting point and sounds are very different to begin with, he manages to create a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Unfurling Streams\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reviewed by Ambient Blog”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[359,279],"class_list":["post-7610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-359","tag-monty-adkins","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7610"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7614,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7610\/revisions\/7614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.cronicaelectronica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}