dl_press

F U R T H E R N O I S E ( J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 6 )

DALE LLOYD AND VARIOUS ARTISTS - AMALGAM: Dale Lloyd, composer,
phonographer and owner of the and/OAR label, was invited to have work
released on the Conv label. Thus, Amalgam was created; a collection of
collaborations between Dale Lloyd and many of his talented friends and
acquaintances.

The contributed material is diverse, including sitar (played by Robert Arthur
Horton), wind chimes, found objects, electronics, turntables (Jon Tulchin),
and even dry ice (Josh Russell). Lloyd, as with his other works, uses
effects and various processing techniques highly creatively, so it's quite
often difficult to tell where the sounds have originated from. Luckily, the
credits contain the names of the artists along with what they contributed,
and this sheds some light on the background and illustrates the creative
effort that has gone into Amalgam.

Due to the vast amount of contributed material and Lloyd's prolific input,
Amalgam feels somewhat monumental. There are 11 tracks, each with
their own character, yet there are overarching consistent aesthetic themes,
pursued but perhaps not enforced by Lloyd's processing and editing. The
emotive range of the tracks is also broad, from the sinister 412.1920
(produced with Sijis label co-owner, Scott Taylor), which uses very low
frequency bass and tactile percussive elements (perhaps harking back to
Lloyd's days as a drummer), to the more melancholic 412.21 (produced
with Ubeboet, another Conv contributor.)

Collaborating with artists who work with both lowercase sound and more
academic approaches adds to the feeling that Lloyd has taken the role of
an alchemist on this release. This is particularly evident as he's credited for
"processing and effects" on all tracks; he seamlessly blends contributed
material with his own field recordings and instrumentation in an ultimately
engaging, yet subtle manner. Indeed, to appreciate the intricate detail in
most of these pieces you have to listen at relatively high volumes, and the
tactile affects of the sounds are only then noticeable when headphones are
used. This is not a critique however, as it makes Amalgam feel like a more
personal and immersive experience than a mere set of experiments.

Dale Lloyd's ability to combine stark and heterogeneous elements to
produce something unique and engaging is strikingly apparent in
Amalgam. The artists featured are luminaries in the lowercase and
phonographic fields, making this a unique and highly recommended
collection. (Alex Young)

I G L O O m i c r o v i e w v o l u m e 25 ( S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 )

DALE LLOYD AND VARIOUS ARTISTS - AMALGAM: **** Canadian team
Nathan and Darcy McNinch play on glass objects accompanying Seattle-
based composer Dale Lloyd’s sound processing on “412.1413” sounding
like beach chimes in the ocean breeze. The radio-like hiss is a warm
warning. The brisk micro-scratching including Omnid is something left-field
of Raster-Noton, minus the funk, plus a certain tension. Some of
‘Amalgam’ is custom-made for minimalism purists as parts are barely
audible, you may want to choose an outside noise-canceling set of
headphones, or simply allow some of the subtleties wash through your
own personal space, combined with exteriors, making for your own
personalized improv. A standout collaboration comes when Lloyd works
with Ben Owen, incorporating wind chimes and various creaky found
objects that crunch and spin. It’s slightly menacing, yet plays at a shy
distance. The two should venture more extensively. With a softly spoken yet
wired-up sensibility in tow, Jon Tulchin brings a sense of vulnerable power
electronics to the (turn)table on “412.1920” keeping all circuits freshly open.
Elsewhere the mechanical hiss of machines sounds like the summer buzz
of late-night crickets and the revving of large motors, just the hum, mind
you. With Heribert Friedl on Hackbrett (some stringed instrument?) there’s
an eerie, echoing feedback that is cavernous laying way to a passage of
darkness and peculiar pops. “Something wicked, this way comes” (for
sure). The drone gurgle of blowing through bamboo startles the senses
with a bit of unrest. (TJ Norris)

P H O S P H E R n u m b e r 1 8 ( S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 )

DALE LLOYD AND VARIOUS ARTISTS - AMALGAM: Each time the Spanish
label CON-V releases a CDR, one gets amazed all over. The quality of their
material is so high, the label can already be considered among the top
three labels in the world of experimental sound. What the releases have in
common is an astonishing refineness and clearness of sound, due to a
minimal approach and great production.

The label's fourth CDR, by Dale Lloyd is no exception. This
Seattle-based composer collected sound material by artists such as
Robert Horton, Nathan McNinch, Omnid, Ben Owen, Josh Russell, Stuart
Dodman, Ubeboet, Scott Taylor, Heribert Friedl, K.M. Krebs and Jon
Tulchin. He processed and edited the source material, to create a rich
collection of distinctive fine-tuned sonic perspectives.

The CDR heads-off with the sound of water and the low-key tunes of a sitar,
hardly to be recognized as such. This is followed by a track in which glass
plays the major part, crystal clear and soft tingling. It's as if the darkness
sets in slowly. Several tracks are even relatively darker, like the ones with
electronics by Omnid, Jon Tulchin, Ubeboet and K.M. Krebs. Nevertheless,
the music remains sparkling and detailed. Several artists contributed field
recordings, with which soft crispy atmospheres are generated. CON-V
from Madrid again delivers an excellent output, their fourth in this series.

T O U C H I N G E X T R E M E S ( S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 5 )

DALE LLOYD AND VARIOUS ARTISTS - AMALGAM: For his first release on
Conv.net Lab, Seattle's Dale Lloyd decided to collaborate with eleven
sound artists instead of working alone. Considering the seriousness of all
involved parties (Robert Horton, Nathan and Darcy McNinch, Omnid, Ben
Owen, Josh Russell, Stuart Dodman, Ubeboet, Scott Taylor, Heribert Friedl,
K.M.Krebs, Jon Tulchin) the results could not have been less than excellent.
The convergence of apparently opposed worlds - drones and microsounds,
organic and processed, acoustic and electronic - seems to constitute the
basic complexion of such a deeply penetrating music; there seems to be a
sort of secretly predetermined walk through progressively immaterial
states, as we move from sounds of glass and water through clicks, hums
and controlled feedback in preparation for what expect us at the end,
namely the semblance of a protracted blur of time suspension, a
framework where seemingly endless textural delights push the
compositions to the highest spheres of sonic meditation. If these men and
this label keep such a focus on the development of sound treatments,
we're definitely in for hours upon hours of important electroacoustic
discoveries. (Massimo Ricci)

D U S T E D ( A U G U S T 2 3 , 2 0 0 5 )

DALE LLOYD AND VARIOUS ARTISTS - AMALGAM: The sound of running
water rolls over high pitched sheets of heavily processed sitar drone.
Several minutes on and the stream’s natural song gives way to a duet
performed by siblings on cut glass, before both the light of the crystal and
color of the drone are engulfed in a dense electronic fog. These sounds
comprise the first three tracks of Amalgam, but you would hardly spot the
joins, such is the artistry of American composer Dale Lloyd. He maintains
the trick throughout the album, a feat all the more commendable since
each of the 11 pieces on display are based on a contribution from a
different collaborator.

Lloyd’s primary role here is that of editor-in-chief, one he fulfils through
processing and the occasional electronic embellishment. It is he who
shapes the raw materials provided by each guest, be it a field recording,
lap top collage or resonating wind chime. From these building blocks
Lloyd constructs his most delicate sonic sculptures. This approach works
best when the gifts bestowed are of a more organic variety, such as the
blissful haze created by Robert Horton’s strings on the opening track, or
during the subtle strumming of Heribert Friedl’s hackbrett (a variety of
hammered dulcimer). It is these entries that poke out from beneath the
uniformity (itself no bad thing!) of Amalgam’s simplicity, provoking Lloyd
into raising his game. He is more than equal to the challenge. But the
majority of Lloyd’s co-creators come from the field of electronic
composition and it is with these that he engineers an atmospheric
blanket of slowly shifting, almost static, nebula clouds.

For the closest reference point think the sonic collages of Lawrence
English. Lloyd’s track in conjunction with Scott Taylor, in particular,
approximates the unique sound of explosive 44-gallon drums popping in
the morning sun from English’s superb Ghost Towns recording. Madrid’s
Con-v label is gradually building a reputation as one of the finest
purveyors of sound as art. With Amalgam the imprints standing can only
increase. (Spencer Grady)

R E T I N A S C A N (A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 )

DALE LLOYD AND VARIOUS ARTISTS - AMALGAM: In the area of field
recordings, Dale Lloyd is a well-known name. After releases on and/OAR and
others, dozens of performances all over the globe and regular contributions
within the microsound net scene, this shouldn't surprise anyone. Arriving on
the Spanish high quality CD-R label Con-v, he can now present the harvest of
his activities, a collection of collaborations with (among others) K.M. Krebs,
Omnid, Heribert Friedl and Scott Taylor. As most of the co-workers roam in the
same style as Lloyd himself, the recordings stick pretty close to the genre,
nonetheless it's the most interesting aspect of the disc how diversified
lowercase already has become, as one is able to recognise clearly the several
influences by the collaborating artists. So, what came out is a brilliant
oversight over recent developments within this school of sound, compact and
listenable!

V I T A L W E E K L Y n u m b e r 4 7 3 w e e k 1 8 (A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 )

DALE LLOYD AND VARIOUS ARTISTS - AMALGAM: In the world of microsound
and field recordings Dale Lloyd should not be an unknown person. His
activities span from his own label and/OAR, to phonography website and of
course his own music. On this new CDR release, 'Amalgam' Lloyd works with
the sounds provided by other artists, such as Heribert Friedl, Omnid, Josh
Russell, Ben Owen and others. It's not Lloyd's task to add any sort of sounds
of his own, but more to process and edit whatever he has gotten. The sounds
he'd been given include sitar, glass, found objects and of course many field
recordings. It's hard to decipher any of these original sounds in Lloyd's
delicate work (or should that be 'world'?) of crackling and fine tuned hissing.
Named after the periodic table it's easy to draw a parallel to the world of
alchemy and that it's easy to see the connection Lloyd wishes to make: his
music is like alchemy: blending various elements, in this instance sound, and
process them until something new arrives. Very much along the best of
microsounding artists like Roel Meelkop, Steve Roden or, more apparent here
than in some of Lloyd's other releases, Richard Chartier. Music to crank up
your volume as a lot of this hovers on the edge of silence, and it unfolds much
of what it has to offer when played loud(er). A good, well-made release, well
produced and perhaps not the latest innovation in microsound, but still a true
beauty. (Frans de Waard)

P A R I S T R A N S A T L A N T I C ( O C T O B E R 2 0 0 5 )

Semper: Thirty-three minutes and forty-four seconds of assertive and
beautifully cultivated microscopic detail and great assembling mastery;
Semper easily gets my vote as one of the best records of 2005. Dale Lloyd,
who's revealing himself as a very talented composer in many ways (check
out his recent Amalgam on Conv.Net Lab) brings together "field recordings,
electronic sounds, toy xylophone, old coins and other metallic and found
objects" in two intoxicating soundscapes in which thunder, rain, birds and
insects fuse unconventionally with the eternal subsonics of a distant
earthquake rumble in waves whose depth is felt under the muscle tissue.
One can only imagine the painstaking process necessary to place every
single attribute in the right light, but such meticulous attention to detail pays
high dividends, as the slo-mo radiance coming out of the speakers throbs
with vital resonance that's almost painful to experience. (Massimo Ricci)

W I R E M A G A Z I N E i s s u e 2 5 7 ( J U L Y 2 0 0 5 )

Semper: Recapitulating the lowercase ethos previously
established by Steve Roden and John Hudak, Dale Lloyd
manipulates delicate textural events and subtle field recordings
for a poetic sensibility that privileges passages of silence and
a Zen-like attentiveness to sounds which might otherwise go
unnoticed. This album is less of a cohesive body of work, more
of a series of loosely related sketches that emerge from Lloyd's
refined use of empty space. He runs everything through a
variety of DSP techniques, resulting in plasticity countering the
organic sounds of birds, insects, and closely observed
gestures from old coins and other metallic found objects. The
crackling ether from controlled feedback also grafts itself onto
those natural elements, further distancing them from their
original context. In all of their poetic restraint and well executed
detail, the sounds of Semper beg for a larger narrative context
to be fully realised. (Jim Haynes)

V I T A L W E E K L Y n u m b e r 4 7 3 w e e k 1 8 ( M A Y 2 0 0 5 )

Semper: In the world of field recordings, and the music made thereof, the
name Dale Lloyd should not be unknown, even when he so far released
his work on MP3 and CDRs. This is I believe his first 'real' CD. It consists
of the lengthy title piece and the shorter 'Magnesian Recumbit'. The sound
sources listed as the usual 'field recordings, electronic sounds, toy
xylophone, old coins and other metallic and found objects'. It's hard to
trace back the origin of the field recordings, save for some of the water
and insect sounds, but most of the times, the computer is working
overtime to process all the sounds into a nice ambient glitch mass.
Densely layered with the microphone quite close to the objects (a trick of
trade Lloyd shares with people like Yannick Dauby or MNortham). The
combination of the sometimes warm, natural sounds and the somewhat
colder electronic sounds work in quite a nice way. 'Semper' is divided in
smaller parts, each with it's distinct, own character. 'Magnesian Recumbit'
is more of a drone piece, with loops and layers of the metallic objects,
working in a trance-like way. The two pieces have a rather pastoral feel to
them, and sound quite solemn. Two great works, pity the CD is rather
short at that. (Frans de Waard)

M O N K M I N K P I N K P U N K ( J U L Y 2 0 0 5 )

Turba / Lateral Minor: More and more I am finding online releases that are
definitely worth the time it takes to download them. Dale Lloyd’s “lateral
minor” and “turba” series release on the consistently excellent three-year-
old weblabel http://www.stasisfield.com which is one of the most intriguing
works that I had the pleasure to come across in 2004.

Listening at different volumes and under various conditions will change
any work but with Dale Lloyd’s sounds, like Bernhard Günter’s, it seems
the question of listening conditions is central to the realization of the
aesthetic intent. The material of both artists requires one to prepare for and
commit to listening uninterruptedly for the duration of the work. Otherwise
there simply isn’t any point. What are the correct circumstances for
allowing the full intent of artist to be perceived? After some thinking on this
issue I decided that in order to get the full frequency range of the
composition the playback system must be set so that lowest frequencies
can be perceived.

With “lateral minor” Lloyd gives up a good piece to test the listening level
as it starts out with a low frequency drone. After turning up the volume so I
could hear all the details in the low-end some high-end frequencies came
piercing through making it easy to decide not to go any louder. That set, I
then stopped the music, took a break, closed the windows, unplugged the
fridge, turned off the heater and settled in to listening at the optimized
volume uninterrupted for the duration of the works, twice.

The headphone listen revealed a rich stereo field teaming with activity
while the studio monitor listen brought out the organic physicality of the
sounds. His craft is refined, a product of pursuing his sound aesthetic for
over 10 years. It’s clear a sensitive ear put the sounds together. Even the
smallest of nuances arrives weighted by intention. It seems he uses field
recordings not as sound objects themselves but more as a set of variables
to extract a new world from, to be mined for their transformable /
interpretable qualities. A good example of this alchemic interpretation of
sounds is the last 90 seconds or so on “lateral minor” which ends with a
haunting musical drone molded out of various contact microphone
recordings of a glass elevator. I only know that because I asked. The
pacing keeps things flowing with “movements” of between two and 4
minutes throughout. The hyper-synthetic sounds work are imbued with a
certain “presence” that feels (yes “feels” not “sounds”) natural. An
impressive aspect of the work is how convincing the inner logic of Lloyd’s
sonic phenomena is. The audio’s patterns and pacing implicitly make
sense. Although the sounds are varied they clearly inhabit the same world
and seem to intuitively obey complex interaction parameters.

I asked Dale Lloyd about his aesthetic to which he replied, “I tend to mostly
be drawn to working and creating sounds that either remind me of naturally
occurring sonic phenomena which can be found somewhere in
nature/science, or that sonically remind me of processes, movements,
patterns, activities, etc. that one might find when exploring nature/science.”

Of course! (Josh Russell)

D I S Q U I E T ( J A N U A R Y 1 8 , 2 0 0 5 )

Turba / Lateral Minor: Dale Lloyd's Turba / Lateral Minor is characteristic of
the netlabel that released it, and just to be clear: that's a compliment. Like
many a Stasisfield Records free download, Lloyd's recording not only
keeps quiet noises in the foreground by lending them interesting surface
textures and by occasionally engaging in piercing sounds and rapt
silences, he also wraps those lovely ruptures around a tidy conceit. In this
case, that means listening in two ways. First there's "Lateral Minor," a
12-minute piece that floats a variety of sonic abrasives above a throaty,
base-level hum, broken up by the odd splice of vacuum space. Then
there's "Turba," which is five distinct tracks, all under under six minutes, all
with a unique subtitle ("circumstantial," "evolutional," "remedial," "imitable"
and "congenital"), each built, like "Lateral," from a mix of environmental and
electronic sounds. Reportedly each "Turba" track works a different magic
on a similar set of source material, not that you'd necessarily surmise that
from the results. Guess you'll have to listen again, and again.
(Marc Weidenbaum)

T O U C H I N G E X T R E M E S ( O C T O B E R 3 , 2 0 0 4 )

Aionios The Fundament: Preserving the essence and the spirit of his field
recordings, Lloyd showers our ears with elemental beauties, incorporating
concrete sounds and expert processing in five austere, almost sacral
assemblages. Ominous landscapes, made wet by sapient dissolvences,
alternate with hisses and crackles seemingly out of some extraterrestrial
backdrop, while darkness and light find their correspondence in a mutual
respect. Time fathoms our chaotic life disposition, disregarding our
imperfections to fog our nerves in a gauzy perceptivity: this is a vast and
involving sound world, where changes and mutations occur very slowly.
We're given all the necessary tools to adapt to this well developed set of
spectral experiences. (Massimo Ricci)

W I N D A N D W I R E ( J U L Y 5 , 2 0 0 4 )

Aionios The Fundament: For those of you unfamilar with the work of Dale
Lloyd, let me take this review as on opportunity to introduce you to a
wonderful artist. For the past three years, as owner of the and/OAR label,
Lloyd has led a burgeoning community of interesting environmental and
field recording artists. I suspect to be hearing and thus writing a lot about
and/OAR artists for future editions of Wind And Wire. But first I turn to
Lloyd's latest - a non-and/OAR release from Daniel Crokaert's wonderfully
sublime Mystery Sea label - Aionios the Fundament.

What is most fascinating about Aionios the Fundament is the way that each
track expands sonically - that is, with little repetition - from one into the next.
This is a work of very subtle detail that promises discovery with each listen.
Beginning with the soft stuttering cadence and water-through-the-barrel
hum of "Saline Crystals Born of Mother Solutions," Lloyd, in effect,
splashes a blank canvas with clear, watery and whispery alchemical
mixture. This is indeed the "birth" of Lloyd's fundament - the barest
structural details - from which this "aionic" embryo will grow. As the watery
echo of swirls come closer into the field, the track ends and, sure enough,
track two, "Adamite Effluvia," takes on a kind of maturation from its
predecessor - that is to say, it gains a thicker layer of pulsing flesh.

It is remarkable that this recording was constructed entirely from field
recordings obtained primarily from sound sculptor extraordinaire, K.M.
Krebs. Lloyd's mixing of different sounds and his subtle volume
adjustments create a truly rich and absorbing listening experience.
"Adamite Effluvia" is a clear example of how Lloyd's creative use of panning
in the recording process can utterly build on a sound's overall aesthetic - in
this case, a slow and circular tumbling of cans bathed in a static
effervescence that provides surprise with its sudden and abrupt ending.

It is difficult to find a clear reference point when considering Aionios the
Fundament. On the one hand, it exhibits all the wonderful mysteriousness
of a master such as Asmus Tietchens or the provocative and multi-layered
soundings of newer artists like Wilt or Heath Yonaites, but Lloyd is more
inclined to a slower, more patient unfolding of sounds than most
experimentalists. Tracks 3 and 4 explore the corporeality of air and liquid
respectively. Once again, Lloyd demonstrates his fascination with sounds
at the audio interstices of white noise and ambience. Both tracks extend
into open drone canvases - track 4, "A Degree Less Corporeal Than
Water," surges with even louder washes of breathy, shimmering rapids
than its airy predecessor. Underscoring the flow of water, we hear
additional layers of sporadic pops and pulses, as if hydrogen atoms are on
the very cusp of becoming at liquid-one with lingering oxygen that is just out
of reach. When we are finally taken into the actuality of the sea on "This
Sea, Our Lodestone," the once embryonic mixture of saline crystals that
began Aionios the Fundament is now a heavily reverberating curtain of
thunderous drones. Highly recommended. (Ben Fleury-Steiner)

A M P E R S A N D E T C . ( J U L Y 2 , 2 0 0 4 )

Aionios The Fundament: Phonographer Dale Lloyd (one of the Union Of
Seattle, and compiler of the Phonography compilations) composes Aionios
The Fundament (MS12). The first track (Saline Crystals Born Of Mother
Solutions) -- is almost half the whole disc -- opens with water ventish, with
a deep pulsing bass (which is a feature throughout), lapping and rolling,
voicey and organic, shifting to hissing rainy shimmers, rattling with
under-organ, stutters to pulsing as a drone gathers, rains and hisses in.
The next track shifts from a whistly high scraping-scream voice, into a
vinyl-loop crackle with a hint of voice; the whole being quite ethereal.
Oceanic is the ebb and flow of A Degree More Corporeal Than Air, layering
a flowing scrape-whistle, and slowly decaying glitter-cycle over a very deep
rumble that sounds like a mic in the wind, with the hiss more left and the
rumble, a right-channel response, into a dense washing (is it a wave or a
train?) with the rumble and then a jiggery skitter.

Finally, the majestic beauty of This Sea, Our Lodestone, high ringing tones,
often voicey, over deep bass, vents to a long and vibrous ending. A lovely
album. (Jeremy Keens)

I G L O O ( M A Y 5 , 2 0 0 4 )

Aionios The Fundament: * * * * Dale Lloyd's field recordings for "Aionios
The Fundament" have an instant density in layers of unfiltered, hollow,
organic chambers. With the radiance of mercury swimming through an
endless pipe, and cover art that projects the shadowy depths of the murky
unknown, Lloyd is reaching deep into his psyche to offer something not
unlike a pearl in his very own shell. Poetically dissonant, "Saline Crystals
Born Of Mother Solutions" rustles and streams, croons and gurgles. Lloyd
is more a choreographer of the elements than a straight shot musician,
which makes this seem like an outsider's perspective - one akin to a
geologist perhaps. This recording reminds me of some live work I have
seen by fellow field recording artist Seth Nehil. Over five tracks and 48
minutes, Lloyd takes us to atomic places formerly hinted at by Wolfgang
Voight and Carsten Nicolai. His sublime rendtion of "Adamite Effluvia" is a
daydream inducing headtrip. Sound as satellite. "Aionios The Fundament"
creates a sensual meditation, cleansing your mind, eradicating the
incidental; drenching it, quenching it. (TJ Norris)

V I T A L W E E K L Y ( N U M B E R 4 1 2 / W E E K 9 )

Aionios The Fundament: Dale Lloyd shouldn't be too unknown by now. He
has various releases out, mostly on CDR, but also as MP3 on the internet;
and his interest lies mostly in using field recordings. On the ever so nice
Mystery Sea label he has a release with five tracks using treated field
recordings from 2002-2003. Upon hearing this music, it's hard to tell what
the nature of these recordings are, as Lloyd gives them a lot of sound
treatment. All of the sounds are treated beyond recognition and warped up,
they form a mystery of their own. Lloyd keeps clearly in mind for which label
he is working, as the whole thing sounds very much in spirit of the previous
ambient related works on Mystery Sea. My best guess is that Lloyd treats a
lot of different water recordings, from rain to the kettle boiling and beyond.
Five pieces of carefully treated stuff that bares a lot of tension underneath
(such as the wind-like sounds in "A Degree Less Corporeal Than Water"
which is like a big storm coming), which makes this into a very powerful
and one of the best Mystery Sea and Dale Lloyd releases so far.
(Frans de Waard)

V I T A L W E E K L Y ( N U M B E R 3 8 8 / W E E K 3 7 )

Elemental Dialogue: Five new releases on Italy's S'agita Records, who
seem to have chosen a new direction in cover design. All of them have
similar shapes and do not look as handmade as before. The only
non-Italian in this new lot of releases is Dale Lloyd, who is known for his
and/OAR label as well as the nice Phonography compilations. For his
release he uses recordings from fire, air / wind, earth, coal, and glass to
electricity and electromagnetic fields. In the nine pieces Lloyd is mainly
busy on the lower side of audibility: very soft sounds, sometimes
surprisingly unprocessed, but in collage form. It's a bit like the Luca
Bergero (fhievel) work, but in the Lloyd release the field recordings remain
the number one sound source and at times recognizable. A strong work of
field recordings. (Frans de Waard)

I N C U R S I O N ( I S S U E 7 0 - A U G U S T 2 0 0 3 )

Eminus: Hymns From The Horizon: Sound artist and phonographer Dale
Lloyd released this recording on his own and/OAR label last year. He's had
a few releases since then, so admittedly, I'm a little late in getting to this
one. Growing out of a fascination with distant and indecipherable sounds,
the pieces collected here carry both the stillness and broad trajectory of
gazing out at the horizon, capturing its essence and amplifying its
resonance. These compositions were created using field recordings and
voices, but also recordings of metal and wood objects performed by Jon
Tulchin and Isaac Sterling. The compositions are accompanied by six
short tracks of silence, ranging from 10 to 55 seconds and peppered
throughout the track list, meant to extend the experience of listening, "to
extend the spatial field of track occurences," or more simply, to give the
listener pause at certain moments to reflect on the sounds contained
herein. And, it should be said, this method works well. Whether listening to
the disc in continuous playback or in shuffle mode (as the notes suggest),
the overall impression is that I am listening to one long piece, with pauses,
silences, spaces in between events. When you look out on the horizon,
maybe you are greeted by the apparent silences of things, surprised by the
stillness, then you might hear something in the distance, a ship on the
sea, the waves, the wind through the branches, low frequencies combining
in subtle turns, the sounds of which funnel through your ears and cause
vibrations that you can still feel, even now, as days, months, years, have
passed since you heard those sounds, still alive in your memory, still
resounding from the distance. (Richard di Santo)

A B S U R D I T I E S ( # 9 / D E C E M B E R 2 9 , 2 0 0 3 )

Vulcan Augmented: Dale Lloyd's "Vulcan Augmented" is another cdr that I
enjoyed listening. It was the first to listen to when I came back from my
holidays and after having spent 2 weeks on the mountains of continental
Greece, I loved the idea of a cdr that brought in mind some of the most
bizarre and obscure moments I lived there (a feeling I was given also from
the RSundin cdr). Dale uses field recordings, electronic, and metallic
sound sources to craft a really dense atmosphere, often can be labeled as
"ambient" or "electroacoustic" but on one hand is lovely enough and on the
other it was my second encounter with his work, the first being "Like
Ulysses" on Staalplaat's Open Circuit Series and I must admit that I was
flattered from the progress Dale has achieved since that work (which was
really dense and bizarre but was giving me the feeling that there was
something missing from its atmosphere). I guess if you are wondering
which work of his to use as a starting point, then it be this one.
(Nicolas Malevitsis)

T O U C H I N G E X T R E M E S ( A U G U S T 2 0 0 4 )

Untitled Songs: Subtitled "49 years from Gesang der Jünglinge
(2005-1956)" this double CD represents a comprehensive view on today's
non-academic electroacoustic music, explicated through "songs" - which
may or may not include vocal sound - by some of the most intelligent
composers working from the outside into the very depths of our perceptive
systems. All the conventional rules of sound placement get graciously
massacred to let new spirits fly out of their ruins; we get pleasantly lost
amidst the probabilities of sonic gibberish changing nature dramatically to
become modified pellucid figures in a grey area of unsubstantial
indelibility. It almost seems that the brain wants to disobey the ears,
choosing to remain in a state of disoriented revolution while trying to
decode the continuous quibbling coming from these charming
configurations. The authors' notes for every piece can be downloaded from
the Sirr website; my personal preferences, if this makes some sense in
such a pantheon of good artists, go to Andre Gonçalves, Jgrzinich, Heitor
Alvelos and Marc Behrens on the first (and best) - disc, and to Dale Lloyd,
Derek Holzer and James Eck Rippie on the second. But it's the general
level of the whole set that leans towards an undifferentiated excellence.
(Massimo Ricci)

A L L M U S I C G U I D E ( J U N E 2 0 0 4 )

The Phonographers Union - Live On Sonarchy Radio:
This is a beautiful, mesmerizing, highly poetic album. The Phonographers
Union -- in this incarnation -- consists of nine artists from the West coast
community of field recordists and phonographers. The best-known names
here are Christopher Delaurenti (his electroacoustic works), Marcos
Fernandes (his label Accretions), and Dale Lloyd (phonography.org, and
his genre-defining compilations).

On April 12, 2003, the nine artists were gathered around a few tables in a
Seattle studio and asked to perform two half-hour long pieces for a radio
broadcast. Each musician is armed with either a CD player, minidisc,
sampler, or other playback devices, and banks of field recordings covering
all aspects of nature and human life -- from wind to children, machines to
birds, busy streets to water, sports to music.

WIth an acute sense of listening, the artists are combining their recordings
(not mere sounds but chunks of space, as the microphone picks up more
than just birdsong or a creaking floor), creating a gripping aural symphony
where the listener is left free of linking sounds together or imagining
scenes that would accomodate all the sounds heard at one particular
moment. More free-form and easy-flowing than musique concrete, much
more concrete than experimental electronica, this music speaks to the
mind and the soul, as some of these sounds are very familiar, but their
combinations evoke surreal situations. Since there are too many details,
too many events to possibly absorb and remember everything in one
sitting, each listen provides a different experience. And even people usually
closed to avant-garde music will be able to sense the poetry and the
immediacy of this album. Highly recommended as a key statement in the
development of "field recording" or "phonography" as a form of sound art.
(Francois Couture)

O T H E R P R E S S / M E D I A :

Seattle Times (September 30, 2007)
An article about "phonography / field recording" featuring brief
interviews with members of the Seattle Phonographers Union.
Read article

Lost Transmissions From Planet Zero - issue 1 (Autumn 2006)
Interview and track featured on a sampler disc. Read interview

e / i Magazine (issue 6 - Winter / Spring 2006)
A label profile for and/OAR including reviews of several releases.
Read an excerpt

Guest Host For Vermilion Sounds (Resonance FM)
DL was invited by Peter Cusack to produce and host
an hour long radio program which was broadcast on
May 6th, 2005 at 8.30pm (UK time). The program was
also streamed via the internet.

Earshot (issue 4 - 2004)
Journal of the UK & Ireland
Soundscape Community
"Phonography: A Brief History of Framework and
Phonography.org" by Patrick McGinley, Marcelo
Radulovich and Dale Lloyd.

Fear Drop (issue 10 - 2003)
Article about and/OAR and Phonography.org compilations.
Read a rticle

Cisza (issue 02 - 2003)
Interview and article regarding Phonography.org and its
compilations.

Quiet Please - KFJC (2002)
San Francisco, California Radio Interview conducted by Aaron
Ximm (aka Quiet American).

V I T A L W E E K L Y ( N U M B E R 3 8 1 / W E E K 3 0 )

Enabling Articulate Fields: Dale Lloyd runs the and/OAR label and
releases compilations for Phonography.org. His work is from the realm of
field recordings. The basis for these 5 short tracks are sounds recorded in
his apartment, mainly the sound of air trying to force its way through his
front door one particularly windy night while opening another window to
adjust the air pressure within the apartment. Having experienced this
phenomena on several occasions I can attest to the interesting sounds
that can occur, from door slams to the squeal of a pressure cooker. Lloyd
processes these sounds and for the most part they are no longer
recognizable. Faint shimmerings, crackles, and whispers are the results of
heavy audio filtering to which Lloyd adds some embellishments from his
Moog Concertmate MG-100 analog synthesizer. What remains are the
sensations that the original sounds can conjure. At times this reminds me
of the Swedish project Dead Letters, with the quiet goings on of organic
matter rendered into strange mechanic operations. A fascinating listen.
(Jeff Surak)

E / I M A G A Z I N E I S S U E 6 ( W I N T E R / S P R I NG 2 0 0 6 )

Semper: Co-released with Alluvial, Semper's two recombinant
environmental recordings are specimens of Dale Lloyd's fealty to the art of
phonography as an act of both documentary preservation and mimetic
creation. The title composition, a daisy chain of discrete vignettes, arrives
wrapped in sandpaper-and-rice textures soon shuffling the listener into
habitats humid, convulsive and weather-stained. Semper's atmospheres
retain traces of this same gusty front throughout the life of the piece,
drenching its landscapes in moods reminiscent of Lloyd-collaborators like
Kim Cascone and Francisco Lopez in hue and timescale. Dynamic controls
and a gift for tone and color are Lloyd's strengths, but even at 33 minutes
the muted, clustered frequencies and affected gravities wear thin, winded
beneath the weight of too much dawn-or-dusk syncretism, too many
mechanical commas to support its duration. Taken as a compendium of
grey days and unpopulated prairies, it remains a well-made and engaging
listen that, nevertheless, leaves one positively aching for the occasional
sunnier clime. (William S. Fields)

G A - Z E T A N U M B E R 4 0 ( F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 5 )

Semper: Environmental recording artist Dale Lloyd knows the true meaning
of a field recording. His latest release "Semper" sees him quietly
reinventing his micro-tonal approach. In reality, this brief [33 minutes] work
is about the delicate detail of the sound, rather than the abstract sound
itself. Lloyd forces the listener to pay close attention to every minute click,
every minute field recording he has assembled here. By using various
sounds [electronic] and those that are found in the natural world [old coins,
xylophone and various found objects], he surrounds our world with an
all-encompassing aural experience. Without a hint of a doubt, "Semper" is
music that pulls you in with a magnetic force. (Tom Sekowski)

T O U C H I N G E X T R E M E S ( F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 7 )

TOY.BIZARRE & DALE LLOYD: There are undersung albums that just need
to be hyped around, and rightly so. This is one of them: two splendid
compositions, masterfully assembled by a pair of lead players in the game
of electronically treated field recordings, demonstrate how an evolved
sound artist can transform simple sources into mayflowers and
nightglows. Toy.Bizarre's "Well, wind, wood, night, plane" has a
self-explanatory title and, according to its author, should be enjoyed only on
headphones. Being this reviewer a little disobedient, I tried both settings
and actually preferred the speakers, even if the suggested method is more
useful for revealing the undercurrent activities characterizing the piece.
Everything you hear was recorded in Pommier, France and is told to be
highly evocative for the composer; indeed, the particular resonance of the
well redeems "normal" sounds, modifying their essence until everything
spirals into constant implausibility, eliciting aural shades of the finest
blend. Metallic gurgles, disguised birds and a fabulous aeroplane are
meshed in an undescribable memento of something that we have surely
experienced but can't recollect in any way. One feels trapped in a giant
drainpipe but at the same time perfectly willing to remain there and accept
any consequence. Dale Lloyd's "From dayspring to eventide: within the
green half-light" is a finely delicate mixture of environmental sounds and
electronics, whose efficiency and exquisite coherence is typical of this
composer. Contrarily to Toy.Bizarre's track, we're in presence of something
that affects our momentary existence more subliminally, tiny harmonics,
insects and gradual crepuscular views inching forward to find the right
framework in our mind to be fixed in and remain as a permanent, indelible
memory, even if those circumstances will never be replicated. A silent
intensity unfolds slowly, then disappears only to be replaced by murmuring
waters and a general sense of rarefaction. Both sides of this precious coin
shine of their respective radiance, and expressing a preference would be
foolishly useless. An absolute must.
(Massimo Ricci)

T O U C H I N G E X T R E M E S ( A U G U S T 2 0 0 4 )

On Isolation: The concept of isolation has always had great importance in
the music of the last 30 years, to the point that one of the many sub-genres
born from the fertile mind of reviewers is the much used, but never fully
explained "isolationism". In this particular instance, the tracks were
commissioned "to interpret senses of disconnection, isolation and
solitude", common feelings in a world that recognizes sensibilities and
talents as something to shroud, or fight against, rather than encourage.
Fifteen artists working in the contiguous areas of contemporary electronica,
installation and field recordings propose their individual rendering of the
main notion, building worlds that may last few minutes yet let us have a
peep at the fascinating possibilities that solitude brings in terms of sonic
development. Without recurring to phantasmagoric efforts, the participants
contribute to many seriously pleasing moments of detachment from the
substantial failures and heavy frustrations of everyday's life, either by
opening new spaces and dimensions (Richard Chartier, Ben Owen) or
having us self-analyze our harmonic being (David Toop, Janek Schaefer)
through a balanced use of actual instruments and environmental
manifestations. Evocative resonances are contained by Stephan Roux's
"Guet-Apens", a perfect example of modern ambient music which also
happens to be an aesthetic high of the disc, while Richard Francis and
Nest transform guitars and computers into a wall of claustrophobic noise
in "The wine cellar". And if we're ever assured about the great quality of
Steinbrüchel's layerings - his "Mono" being no exception - I'm once again
willing to single out the compositional endowment of Dale Lloyd, whose
"Among the many" first hypnotizes through repetitive structures, then
surprises with a sudden transition to more concrete mechanical sounds.
Another brilliant piece of work in a high-level compilation you don't want to
miss. (Massimo Ricci)

T O K A F I (A P R I L 2 0 0 7 )

TOY.BIZARRE & DALE LLOYD: More than just pointing the microphone
somewhere: Personal and private perspectives.

It has become a universally acknowledged and accepted fact that field
recordings and drones go together like brother and sister. In my opinion
this has to do with the fact that the combination possibly mirrors the world
we live in more plastically than any other, thanks to its unification of the
technological and the organical. And yet it would not suffice simply placing
Cedric Peyronnet and Dale Lloyd in this corner, bunching them together
with myriads of artists who merely use field recordings as an additional
element to deepen their ambiances. Rather, they regard the aural
capacities of specific places as the clay with which to make their emotional
perceptions tangible and to communicate them to others. As this album
shows, the result is always more than just randomly pointing the
microphone somewhere.

Which makes sense if you really think about it. After all, as long as you can
not actually see the space which is to be described, field recordings will
only be able to conjure up images from inside you own imagination. Their
power may lie in digging up images you never knew you carried around
with you, but which naturally bear no real connection to the taped events.
When Peyronnet (the man behind toy.bizarre) uses the noises of a well, of
wind, wood, insects and birds from his parents’ village and home on his
twenty minute long contribution, he does not want the listener to experience
these from scratch, but to put themselves in his place and feel their way
through his personal and private perspective. He is not an objective
spectator, quite on the contrary, he willfully rearranges the different parts to
arrive at the picture in his head, without caring whether or not they match
reality or not. On the other hand, his method naturally relies on the certainty
that this so-called reality does not exist at all. If every sensation is merely a
stimulation of neuro-receptors in the brain, then this brooding, menacing,
convulsing, clustering mass, which leaps from a howling thundercloud into
a picture of majestic quietude, is just as real: You lie in your sleeping bag
under a clear black sky, your hand clasps a bottle of red whine and your
gaze roams the stars, as the sounds of the surrounding wood engulf you.
Dale Lloyd, too, has entered the forest for “From Dayspring to Eventide:
Within the Green Half-Light”, a composition which equally relies on
environmental recordings, but glides by much more subtly, vaporously and
almost elph-like. It is the little miracles and wonders of nature Lloyd is after,
the majesty of the minuscule details, the moments when your spiritual
center is on the same wavelength as the glowing treetops ahead of you.
Finely woven crackles as if from burning glass melt with two layers of
irredescent harmonic breaths and the subliminal bubbling of water at the
gate and after you’ve entered, nothing remains but the whispers of all those
tiny creatures lurking at you from behind their veil of darkness. And yet, this
music is warm and friendly, never creepy or frightening.

Lloyd’s work seems less constructed than Peyronnet’s, but that it is not
only an illusion brought forth by conscious decisions on the part of the
creators, but also a totally irrelevant parameter: It is not the degree to which
these tracks have been reworked, manipulated or moulded into something
different within the confinements of the studio environment, but the degree
to which they approximate the emotive landscape that caused their genesis
in the first place. The result is instantly understandable and quite
unacademic: An album which has all the potential of becoming a dear
friend. (Tobias Fischer)