“Happiness Will Befall” reviewed by Loop

This is the debut album on Porto’s Crónica Electrónica label of Lawrence English, a musician, writer and sound artist who is based in Brisbane, Australia. In his works he plays guitar, software design, field recordings, cassettes, turntables and other electronic devices. His sound approach it’s related with concrète musique, minimalism and noise. He creates spectral soundscapes and the improvisation is a method of work to explore new sounds.

He’s discography comprise eleven albums, plus a diverse of sound installations outputs and curated exhibitions worldwide. He has worked with outstanding artists like David Toop, Scanner, Oren Ambarchi, Marina Rosenfeld, DJ Olive, Philip Samartzis, Toshio Kajiwara, Tetuzi Akiyama, Janek Schaefer, among other artists.

The six tracks on ‘Happines Will Befall’ have from very noisy textures to minimalist spaces. ‘Adrift’ hold heavy keyboard notes that create certain tension. The environmental guitar of English hook trembling guitar on ‘Two Weeks I’ll never have again’, as well as heavy noise. This bordering dirty sound is the texture of ‘Within of glass’, alongwith drones as a background, in addition to guitar experimentation. In a clean atmosphere, only with keyboard notes and imperceptible sounds are on ‘I’ve been happy like this’. Treated voices, sounds from the sea to the distant spot, the noise of a train wagon passing, micro digital percussions, are the soundscapes on ‘Parallel [midgap]’. The last track ‘Relocated [UTC]’ it’s my favourite one, so delicate, with only few keyboard notes.

Guillermo Escudero

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