Track Listing:
1. Semper
2. Magnesian Recumbit
"Semper is Alluvial's first release of 2005 and is co-released with the and/OAR
label. Seattle-based composer Dale Lloyd has collaborated in the past with
people such as Yannick Dauby and Michael Northam, and has had work released
by labels such as Bremsstrahlung Recordings, Staalplaat and Sirr.ecords. For the
past 5 years, Lloyd has played a quiet but strong role in bringing new life to the
notion of 'environmental recordings as sound art' (or "Phonography") with the
highly regarded compilations produced for Phonography.org, as well as other
projects and activities.
The first piece entitled 'Semper', is mostly a quiet and contemplative work,
yet it contains sprawling builds from near silent ebbs and flows to thunderous
crescendos. Also heard are delicate field recordings and found objects
transformed and woven into intricate electronic tapestries. The second and shorter
piece titled "Magnesian Recumbit" is a slowly building ambient work with a
unique sense of melancholy that makes for a perfect ending.
Surely, it is one of the strongest works to come from both Lloyd and Alluvial."
(Kevin Wienke - Alluvial Recordings)
"For me, Semper basically illustrates a series of self-searching questions (with
subtle epiphanies) followed by a somewhat enigmatic resolve or 'answer', of which
I believe we have all encountered in our lives in one way or another." (Dale Lloyd)
1. Semper
2. Magnesian Recumbit
"Semper is Alluvial's first release of 2005 and is co-released with the and/OAR
label. Seattle-based composer Dale Lloyd has collaborated in the past with
people such as Yannick Dauby and Michael Northam, and has had work released
by labels such as Bremsstrahlung Recordings, Staalplaat and Sirr.ecords. For the
past 5 years, Lloyd has played a quiet but strong role in bringing new life to the
notion of 'environmental recordings as sound art' (or "Phonography") with the
highly regarded compilations produced for Phonography.org, as well as other
projects and activities.
The first piece entitled 'Semper', is mostly a quiet and contemplative work,
yet it contains sprawling builds from near silent ebbs and flows to thunderous
crescendos. Also heard are delicate field recordings and found objects
transformed and woven into intricate electronic tapestries. The second and shorter
piece titled "Magnesian Recumbit" is a slowly building ambient work with a
unique sense of melancholy that makes for a perfect ending.
Surely, it is one of the strongest works to come from both Lloyd and Alluvial."
(Kevin Wienke - Alluvial Recordings)
"For me, Semper basically illustrates a series of self-searching questions (with
subtle epiphanies) followed by a somewhat enigmatic resolve or 'answer', of which
I believe we have all encountered in our lives in one way or another." (Dale Lloyd)
artist: DALE LLOYD
title: Semper
catalog number: a19
release year: 2005
format: CD
status: sold out
title: Semper
catalog number: a19
release year: 2005
format: CD
status: sold out
PARIS TRANSATLANTIC (OCTOBER 2005)
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)
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)
WIRE (JULY 2005)
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)
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)
VITAL WEEKLY (MAY 2005)
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)
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)
E / I MAGAZINE (WINTER / SPRING 2006)
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)
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)
SMALLFISH (JULY 2006)
Dale Lloyd, owner of and/OAR, has put together a delicious CD of found sound /
field recordings / environmental sounds with some truly delightful processing. The
kind of thing that I could get really bogged down in describing when, in essence,
it's the kind of work that you absolutely need to hear for yourself to appreciate.
There are moments here that would certainly not be out of place on 12k and there
are other moments that are pure atmospheric noise. A superb and very engaging
CD that should easily appeal to fans of Non Visual Objects, Richard Chartier and
Steve Roden. (Mike Oliver)
Dale Lloyd, owner of and/OAR, has put together a delicious CD of found sound /
field recordings / environmental sounds with some truly delightful processing. The
kind of thing that I could get really bogged down in describing when, in essence,
it's the kind of work that you absolutely need to hear for yourself to appreciate.
There are moments here that would certainly not be out of place on 12k and there
are other moments that are pure atmospheric noise. A superb and very engaging
CD that should easily appeal to fans of Non Visual Objects, Richard Chartier and
Steve Roden. (Mike Oliver)
