Disquiet

According to the Dark Winter website, Aidan Baker‘s 24.2.24.4., the netlabel’s latest release, consists entirely of sounds made by electric bass and guitar. Well, make that electric bass and guitar manipulated and layered, cut’n'pasted, until the original sources are all but distant memories. Those reverberating strings are buried deep in a haze of suggestive static, clicks, rasps, hums and otherworldly moans (MP3). There are moments when oscillating waves suggest some old sci-fi flick, but otherwise the single, hour-long piece is an extended survey of gaseous abstraction. Atmospheric music of this length has a tendency to be samey, mistaking homogeneity for seamlessness, but 24.2.24.4. has more than enough distinct moments to make for foreground listening. Info on Baker at aidanbaker.org, and on Dark Winter at darkwinter.com.

By Marc Weidenbaum