Disquiet

He may have taken a break, but he’s returned twofold.

Over at alanmorsedavies.wordpress.com, Alan Morse Davies has begun, anew, his occasional audio postings, having uploaded today a pair, his first new additions to the site since early May.

“The Beauty of a Place When Everyone Cruel Is Still Sleeping” is an exercise in what he describes as “abstract slowness,” a haunting wall of moan that, it turns out, was originally birdsong — rendered eminently ghostly when Davies reduced the tape speed to (by his approximation) 1/64th its original pace (MP3). Meanwhile, “The Sontaran Experiment in the Style of Jóhann Jóhannsson” is just that: a good-natured attempt at the mix of symphonic classicism and full-throttle drone characterizes the work of the composer in question (MP3).

Heard in tandem, the pair of Davies tracks brings to mind — between the glacial pace of the first and the melancholy melodicism of the second — the manipulated 78rpm recordings that made such an impression when Davies posted them last year (disquiet.com).

The latest Touch podcast is a nearly nine-minute recording of bees.

Not just any bees, mind you.

These are busy bees due for their concert debut.

That bee bow will be taken at nowhere less than Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, this coming September, on Sunday the 6th. The recordings, by Mike Harding (“diffused” by Chris Watson), will serve as raw materials for a Bee Symphony by composer Marcus Davidson.

The bee recording is in the M4A format, which allows for the insertion of static images at bookmarked points, a feature that Touch has made excellent use of (at touchmusic.org.uk).

“Dangerous” is one of the more abused words in art criticism, often a figment of imagined or projected transgression by individuals who are, in fact, quite apart from the active world they presume to confront. The Hitchcockian buzzing activity of this unnerving recording quickly gives way to a surprise on the part of the recorders — that one of them has been stung, and that bees have made their way into the protective suits.

“It was going so well,” jokes the recipient of the bees’s antipathy. Later, protesting that he must proceed with the recording effort despite the pain, he adds, “It’s for the love of sound.”

More info at touchradio.org.uk. More on composer Davidson at marcusdavidson.net.