TOKAFI (MARCH 2010)
With "Four Malleable", the double CD released by and/OAR in late 2009, Richard
Garet offers us, if not a definitive statement of his work, at least a focused itinerary
through his sound production over the last six years. Garet is a visual artist as well
as a sound composer, working with video and photography in addition to the
sound- and image-process installations and performances for which he
increasingly is becoming known. The process of working a given material for its
internally-defined qualities, without regard to associational or representational
meanings, is a major focus of Garet’s work, whether he is working with projected
light, digital sound, printer ink, or acrylic on canvas. With “Four Malleable” we get
to see that process at work in a number of ways, and this release gives us the
perfect vantage from which to appreciate the strengths of this approach, as well as
to view some of its contradictions.
“Nocturne” is the first and most recent of the CD’s compositions, and the release’s
strongest work. Tonal arrangements hover without resolving into actual harmony
with an undercurrent of digital grit running throughout. This gives way to a hazy
squall of white noise midway through the piece, then to a kind of feedback tone
which in turn evolves slowly into an ultra-high frequency buzz and hiss, and a
return to static, arriving at an abrupt full stop. The open question in any of Garet’s
sound works seems to be, “how does a material in the process of becoming, be it
through a “natural” unguided process or through a “compositional” process, come
to find its form? And how does one recognize this form as appropriate, or even
necessary, to the material?” “Nocturne” takes up this issue and brings it to a tight
and logical extension, giving us 30 minutes of what feels like an effortless, casual
unfolding that on closer inspection becomes a marker of the work’s formal rigor.
Garet puts many things in play in his complex works, often placing contradictory
impulses and ideas in dynamic tension. When this balance is struck, as in
“Nocturne”, the result is quite powerful.
One immediately apparent touchstone for “Nocturne”, and to a lesser extent for all
the pieces on “Four Malleable”, is Illusion of Safety’s late 1990’s work, especially
their own double CD “Of and The”. This process of balancing impulses is a driver
in both epic-length works: balancing noise and repose, natural and post-processed
sound, meditative and sinisterly imposing gestures. Garet takes IOS’s instincts to
transformation to another level of abstraction, rarely touching down on
recognizable field recordings on the one hand or on traditional musical scale on
the other. This parallel with Garet’s work extends to an extent to other artists in
Illusion of Safety’s orbit, including Kevin Drumm and Jim O’Rourke, who share an
interest in working with the heft and menace of noise in a refined manner.
As suggested by the title, both J.M.W Turner and Claude Debussy also surface as
resonant touchstones for “Nocturne”. Both provide telling cues to Garet’s use of
abstraction, and the processing of recordings into passages of organized sound.
Despite Garet’s stated interest in sound’s purely inherent qualities, the work seems
to strive for a kind of imagistic perspective as much as for a pure abstract plane of
affect. “Nocturne” is so effective partly because its abstraction does not arrive pure,
but rather “infected” by a stong visual sense. But a visual sense that is at the same
time always held at bay, as if through the kind of blurring in Turner’s own
nocturnes – an abstraction through complexity, of holding too much of the
environment (the mist, the smoke, the shadow) in the image. Garet’s sound shares
this additive logic, developing sheets of interpenetrating detail rather than
reducing to a focal point.
“Sceneries” shares this emphasis on the visual, in both title and sound, starting with
high piercing tones and an almost tidal recurrence of different drones, fading
finally into what sounds like soft traffic. Returning to Debussy, we can hear how
much of Garet’s work is also indebted to classical formal structure: each of the four
works on “Four Malleable” are almost exactly 30 minutes long; each is structured
in a progression of sections, one might say “movements”, that pass into each other
more of less smoothly; and within each section there is a consistent micro-
structure of multiple voices coming slowly into and out of focus in relation to one
another. It is interesting to balance this apparent structure against what the liner
notes suggest is a program of pure sound exploration without reference to any kind
of external or generic model. What one finds coming from the sound is a rather
more dynamic complex of factors, logics, and effects. It is very much a process
which is unresolved, however, and so the pieces vary in their effects, or
effectiveness. In the case of “Sceneries”, the work stays somewhat moored in its
structure, each sound content to stay within some invisible boundary.
“From Modified Tapes”, perhaps the most interesting piece of the quartet, shows
this unresolved tension between compositional logics in yet another way. The work
is developed from partially erased and re-recorded cassette tapes, and it is bathed
in that medium’s hazy mid-range hiss. It is fascinating to hear what is in many ways
the backdrop to what might have been, the empty stage of low-fidelity sound,
organized and magnified to the focus of listening. It is the most easily readable as
a process-based piece, and yet it also begins to approach “Nocturne”’s Turner-
esque sublime in its near-total landscape of what was once background noise.
Until a moment at 18 minutes, however, when what sound like voices from the
radio burble up in the mix. The effect is quite interesting, if vexing: the piece turns
from a landscape back into a portrait, one might say: the voice is impossible to
ignore or to assimilate into listening the same way one would any other type of
abstract sound, and its gravity here is such that it forces all the surrounding and
following sounds into relation with it. Noise becomes noise around the voice
again, a frame, backdrop, or container, but no longer the thing-in-itself focus of
the work’s being. It is in some ways a breaking of the integral character of the
piece in favor of a counter-logic, or counterforce, that complicates the work and
refuses to allow it to resolve or cohere totally.
This occurrence of spoken language in “From Modified Tapes” operates in a way
similar to the release’s liner notes: it insists on a logic which the work overall is
somehow interested in complicating, or subverting. The liner notes seem to
disavow any referentiality in the work, for example, instead putting forth a rather
self-evident list of sound qualities that Garet focuses on, including “time, pitch,
timbre, amplitude… and structure”. But this is simply another way to say one is
attending to the work, rather than a statement about what the work is. It functions
more as a kind of dodge or feint away from meaning than any kind of engagement
with it. One is left with the feeling that a potent subconscious force flows
throughout this work that keeps elements in a fascinating tension, but at the same
time holding them away from a full resolution of form. Or perhaps it is that the
primary formal tension is precisely between conscious control and the free
becoming of the material; between a knowing control and a calculated
suspension of knowledge, in order to let the world breathe through the work, and
perhaps by extension through the composer.
The material has its logic, its needs, and its formal tectonics, while Garet has his
own, which like those of the material may perhaps only come to the surface slowly
and through an intensive dynamic of friction, the results of which will eventually
be called “the composition”. It is partly this uncertainty about the pieces, about
how they arrived to us, whether through magic, calculation, or chance, that makes
the process of encountering them so intriguing. (Andy Graydon)
With "Four Malleable", the double CD released by and/OAR in late 2009, Richard
Garet offers us, if not a definitive statement of his work, at least a focused itinerary
through his sound production over the last six years. Garet is a visual artist as well
as a sound composer, working with video and photography in addition to the
sound- and image-process installations and performances for which he
increasingly is becoming known. The process of working a given material for its
internally-defined qualities, without regard to associational or representational
meanings, is a major focus of Garet’s work, whether he is working with projected
light, digital sound, printer ink, or acrylic on canvas. With “Four Malleable” we get
to see that process at work in a number of ways, and this release gives us the
perfect vantage from which to appreciate the strengths of this approach, as well as
to view some of its contradictions.
“Nocturne” is the first and most recent of the CD’s compositions, and the release’s
strongest work. Tonal arrangements hover without resolving into actual harmony
with an undercurrent of digital grit running throughout. This gives way to a hazy
squall of white noise midway through the piece, then to a kind of feedback tone
which in turn evolves slowly into an ultra-high frequency buzz and hiss, and a
return to static, arriving at an abrupt full stop. The open question in any of Garet’s
sound works seems to be, “how does a material in the process of becoming, be it
through a “natural” unguided process or through a “compositional” process, come
to find its form? And how does one recognize this form as appropriate, or even
necessary, to the material?” “Nocturne” takes up this issue and brings it to a tight
and logical extension, giving us 30 minutes of what feels like an effortless, casual
unfolding that on closer inspection becomes a marker of the work’s formal rigor.
Garet puts many things in play in his complex works, often placing contradictory
impulses and ideas in dynamic tension. When this balance is struck, as in
“Nocturne”, the result is quite powerful.
One immediately apparent touchstone for “Nocturne”, and to a lesser extent for all
the pieces on “Four Malleable”, is Illusion of Safety’s late 1990’s work, especially
their own double CD “Of and The”. This process of balancing impulses is a driver
in both epic-length works: balancing noise and repose, natural and post-processed
sound, meditative and sinisterly imposing gestures. Garet takes IOS’s instincts to
transformation to another level of abstraction, rarely touching down on
recognizable field recordings on the one hand or on traditional musical scale on
the other. This parallel with Garet’s work extends to an extent to other artists in
Illusion of Safety’s orbit, including Kevin Drumm and Jim O’Rourke, who share an
interest in working with the heft and menace of noise in a refined manner.
As suggested by the title, both J.M.W Turner and Claude Debussy also surface as
resonant touchstones for “Nocturne”. Both provide telling cues to Garet’s use of
abstraction, and the processing of recordings into passages of organized sound.
Despite Garet’s stated interest in sound’s purely inherent qualities, the work seems
to strive for a kind of imagistic perspective as much as for a pure abstract plane of
affect. “Nocturne” is so effective partly because its abstraction does not arrive pure,
but rather “infected” by a stong visual sense. But a visual sense that is at the same
time always held at bay, as if through the kind of blurring in Turner’s own
nocturnes – an abstraction through complexity, of holding too much of the
environment (the mist, the smoke, the shadow) in the image. Garet’s sound shares
this additive logic, developing sheets of interpenetrating detail rather than
reducing to a focal point.
“Sceneries” shares this emphasis on the visual, in both title and sound, starting with
high piercing tones and an almost tidal recurrence of different drones, fading
finally into what sounds like soft traffic. Returning to Debussy, we can hear how
much of Garet’s work is also indebted to classical formal structure: each of the four
works on “Four Malleable” are almost exactly 30 minutes long; each is structured
in a progression of sections, one might say “movements”, that pass into each other
more of less smoothly; and within each section there is a consistent micro-
structure of multiple voices coming slowly into and out of focus in relation to one
another. It is interesting to balance this apparent structure against what the liner
notes suggest is a program of pure sound exploration without reference to any kind
of external or generic model. What one finds coming from the sound is a rather
more dynamic complex of factors, logics, and effects. It is very much a process
which is unresolved, however, and so the pieces vary in their effects, or
effectiveness. In the case of “Sceneries”, the work stays somewhat moored in its
structure, each sound content to stay within some invisible boundary.
“From Modified Tapes”, perhaps the most interesting piece of the quartet, shows
this unresolved tension between compositional logics in yet another way. The work
is developed from partially erased and re-recorded cassette tapes, and it is bathed
in that medium’s hazy mid-range hiss. It is fascinating to hear what is in many ways
the backdrop to what might have been, the empty stage of low-fidelity sound,
organized and magnified to the focus of listening. It is the most easily readable as
a process-based piece, and yet it also begins to approach “Nocturne”’s Turner-
esque sublime in its near-total landscape of what was once background noise.
Until a moment at 18 minutes, however, when what sound like voices from the
radio burble up in the mix. The effect is quite interesting, if vexing: the piece turns
from a landscape back into a portrait, one might say: the voice is impossible to
ignore or to assimilate into listening the same way one would any other type of
abstract sound, and its gravity here is such that it forces all the surrounding and
following sounds into relation with it. Noise becomes noise around the voice
again, a frame, backdrop, or container, but no longer the thing-in-itself focus of
the work’s being. It is in some ways a breaking of the integral character of the
piece in favor of a counter-logic, or counterforce, that complicates the work and
refuses to allow it to resolve or cohere totally.
This occurrence of spoken language in “From Modified Tapes” operates in a way
similar to the release’s liner notes: it insists on a logic which the work overall is
somehow interested in complicating, or subverting. The liner notes seem to
disavow any referentiality in the work, for example, instead putting forth a rather
self-evident list of sound qualities that Garet focuses on, including “time, pitch,
timbre, amplitude… and structure”. But this is simply another way to say one is
attending to the work, rather than a statement about what the work is. It functions
more as a kind of dodge or feint away from meaning than any kind of engagement
with it. One is left with the feeling that a potent subconscious force flows
throughout this work that keeps elements in a fascinating tension, but at the same
time holding them away from a full resolution of form. Or perhaps it is that the
primary formal tension is precisely between conscious control and the free
becoming of the material; between a knowing control and a calculated
suspension of knowledge, in order to let the world breathe through the work, and
perhaps by extension through the composer.
The material has its logic, its needs, and its formal tectonics, while Garet has his
own, which like those of the material may perhaps only come to the surface slowly
and through an intensive dynamic of friction, the results of which will eventually
be called “the composition”. It is partly this uncertainty about the pieces, about
how they arrived to us, whether through magic, calculation, or chance, that makes
the process of encountering them so intriguing. (Andy Graydon)
artist: RICHARD GARET
title: Four Malleable
catalog number: and/34
release year: 2009
format: CD x 2
status: sold out
title: Four Malleable
catalog number: and/34
release year: 2009
format: CD x 2
status: sold out
Four Malleable is comprised of what are among Richard's best compositions from
four different years: Imaginative Elements (2004), From Modified Tapes (2005),
Sceneries (2006), and Nocturne (2009). Four previously unreleased works that
place the mind's eye inside malleable forms and blurred locations.
Richard Garet works interweaving multiple media including moving image, sound,
live performances, and photography. He completed his MFA at Bard College, and
was awarded the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Jerome
Foundation Residency Grant through IPR, and the New York State Council on the
Arts Grant through Lehman College. He recently completed a three months artist
residency at Issue Project Room, NY in 2010, and previously completed a
residency at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Scottsdale,
Arizona in 2006. Recent exhibitions and performances include: Fine Arts Museum
of Montreal, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art
of Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain; Art Museum of Puerto Rico, San Juan,
Puerto Rico; and El Museo del Barrio, NYC. Additional exhibitions include Never
Can Say Goodbye at the former Tower Records store; Sonochrome: at the Public
Trust Gallery, Dallas, Texas; Leervoll, Diapason Gallery, and more. His sound
compositions have been published through sound art labels such as and/OAR,
Non Visual Objects, Winds Measure Recordings, Unframed Recordings, Con-V,
Leerraum, White_Line Editions, and Contour Editions. Additionally Garet currently
directs the independent media label Contour Editions publishing works that
explore the various possibilities of sound and light. Garet also co-curates with
Louky Keijsers Koning, the monthly performance event LMAKseries, which
integrates film, video, sound art, and media performance into the gallery's mission
at LMAK Projects in the L.E.S, NYC.
Richard Garet is interested in the phenomena found and produced in time-based
media, and human beings' relationship with both artificial and natural
environments. His audiovisual exploratory steps are focused on concept and
function, material and process, listening, viewing, and experience. Even though
Garet’s work suits the standard gallery setting, many of his other activities as an
artist explore the various practices of experimental sound and video performance.
All of these modes are additional ways in which Garet’s work exposes the audience
to real time explorations of audiovisual processes, emphasizing the experiential,
the sensorial, and the active-reception of the body and mind. Richard Garet
states, “when creating a piece I reflect on what the work is meant to accomplish,
how it functions in relationship to the space, how it affects the audience, and how
sound and visual content are connected to one another. These questions
determine my choices and influence the direction of the work."
four different years: Imaginative Elements (2004), From Modified Tapes (2005),
Sceneries (2006), and Nocturne (2009). Four previously unreleased works that
place the mind's eye inside malleable forms and blurred locations.
Richard Garet works interweaving multiple media including moving image, sound,
live performances, and photography. He completed his MFA at Bard College, and
was awarded the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, Jerome
Foundation Residency Grant through IPR, and the New York State Council on the
Arts Grant through Lehman College. He recently completed a three months artist
residency at Issue Project Room, NY in 2010, and previously completed a
residency at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, Scottsdale,
Arizona in 2006. Recent exhibitions and performances include: Fine Arts Museum
of Montreal, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art
of Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain; Art Museum of Puerto Rico, San Juan,
Puerto Rico; and El Museo del Barrio, NYC. Additional exhibitions include Never
Can Say Goodbye at the former Tower Records store; Sonochrome: at the Public
Trust Gallery, Dallas, Texas; Leervoll, Diapason Gallery, and more. His sound
compositions have been published through sound art labels such as and/OAR,
Non Visual Objects, Winds Measure Recordings, Unframed Recordings, Con-V,
Leerraum, White_Line Editions, and Contour Editions. Additionally Garet currently
directs the independent media label Contour Editions publishing works that
explore the various possibilities of sound and light. Garet also co-curates with
Louky Keijsers Koning, the monthly performance event LMAKseries, which
integrates film, video, sound art, and media performance into the gallery's mission
at LMAK Projects in the L.E.S, NYC.
Richard Garet is interested in the phenomena found and produced in time-based
media, and human beings' relationship with both artificial and natural
environments. His audiovisual exploratory steps are focused on concept and
function, material and process, listening, viewing, and experience. Even though
Garet’s work suits the standard gallery setting, many of his other activities as an
artist explore the various practices of experimental sound and video performance.
All of these modes are additional ways in which Garet’s work exposes the audience
to real time explorations of audiovisual processes, emphasizing the experiential,
the sensorial, and the active-reception of the body and mind. Richard Garet
states, “when creating a piece I reflect on what the work is meant to accomplish,
how it functions in relationship to the space, how it affects the audience, and how
sound and visual content are connected to one another. These questions
determine my choices and influence the direction of the work."
AQUARIUS RECORDS (DECEMBER 2009)
Richard Garet is a multimedia artist who has been quite active in and around New
York for many years now. Our only exposure to his work was by way of an excellent
if under-appreciated collaboration with perennial AQ-favorite Brendan Murray
entitled Of Distance, which came out earlier in 2009. Unfortunately, we missed
out on a couple of Garet's earlier recordings on NonVisualRecordings and Winds
Measure, but when and/OAR announced an album from Mr. Garet, we were quite
intrigued. Given the strength of this recording, he's definitely making us reconsider
going back and digging up those earlier records. This double disc set is a fantastic
collection of hushed drone music, cracked silences, stacked tape hiss, controlled
feedback, and stoic masses of gray noise.
The four extended pieces date from 2004-2009, and all exhibit a restrained
aesthetic balancing an environmental stillness from various field recordings with
the grandeur of minimalist strategies in composition. In many ways, it makes a lot
of sense that Garet would be drawn to work with Brendan Murray, as both generate
work that oozes with a hypnotic, wholly monochromatic sound design that could
act as the soundtrack to a sandstorm as viewed from the other side of the Sahara
Desert or to missile tests that are supposed to be hidden from public view.
Something ominous is at hand in Garet's work, and the mystery as to what exactly
'it' is works to his advantage. Amidst these accumulations of layered textures and
slow gravitational orbits of sonic detritus, Garet alludes to the swells of oceanic
currents, the nocturnal buzzing of amassed insects, and reverberant echoes bellow
from the depths of some underground bunker. All of which falls somewhere near
Joe Colley, Tarab, John Duncan, and Coelacanth. So yeah, we dig it.
Richard Garet is a multimedia artist who has been quite active in and around New
York for many years now. Our only exposure to his work was by way of an excellent
if under-appreciated collaboration with perennial AQ-favorite Brendan Murray
entitled Of Distance, which came out earlier in 2009. Unfortunately, we missed
out on a couple of Garet's earlier recordings on NonVisualRecordings and Winds
Measure, but when and/OAR announced an album from Mr. Garet, we were quite
intrigued. Given the strength of this recording, he's definitely making us reconsider
going back and digging up those earlier records. This double disc set is a fantastic
collection of hushed drone music, cracked silences, stacked tape hiss, controlled
feedback, and stoic masses of gray noise.
The four extended pieces date from 2004-2009, and all exhibit a restrained
aesthetic balancing an environmental stillness from various field recordings with
the grandeur of minimalist strategies in composition. In many ways, it makes a lot
of sense that Garet would be drawn to work with Brendan Murray, as both generate
work that oozes with a hypnotic, wholly monochromatic sound design that could
act as the soundtrack to a sandstorm as viewed from the other side of the Sahara
Desert or to missile tests that are supposed to be hidden from public view.
Something ominous is at hand in Garet's work, and the mystery as to what exactly
'it' is works to his advantage. Amidst these accumulations of layered textures and
slow gravitational orbits of sonic detritus, Garet alludes to the swells of oceanic
currents, the nocturnal buzzing of amassed insects, and reverberant echoes bellow
from the depths of some underground bunker. All of which falls somewhere near
Joe Colley, Tarab, John Duncan, and Coelacanth. So yeah, we dig it.
DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY (DECEMBER 2009)
"Four Malleable" is four compositions containing four different sound sources,
recorded in four different years, each ranging around the half-hour mark. All four
tracks delve into the microsounds and drones that have been championed by
fellow travelers with whom he shares some musical kinsmanship; Francisco Lopez,
Brendan Murray, and the Onkyo crew. As Garet points a microscope at these small
and delicate (possibly even decaying) sounds, it highlights the vibrant life of the
nano world in which we barely encounter. He handles each tone with such
precision and gentleness, guiding the frequencies deep into your ear canal to
resonate your cranial cavity. A master at his craft and very impressive indeed!
Job well done Senor Garet! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! (Chuck Bettis)
"Four Malleable" is four compositions containing four different sound sources,
recorded in four different years, each ranging around the half-hour mark. All four
tracks delve into the microsounds and drones that have been championed by
fellow travelers with whom he shares some musical kinsmanship; Francisco Lopez,
Brendan Murray, and the Onkyo crew. As Garet points a microscope at these small
and delicate (possibly even decaying) sounds, it highlights the vibrant life of the
nano world in which we barely encounter. He handles each tone with such
precision and gentleness, guiding the frequencies deep into your ear canal to
resonate your cranial cavity. A master at his craft and very impressive indeed!
Job well done Senor Garet! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! (Chuck Bettis)
JUST OUTSIDE (DECEMBER 2009)
Four pieces, each about 1/2 hour long, from 2004-2009. Garet is an expert in the
art of the "grainy drone", taking sound sources that may be natural or industrial,
usually with some amount of variegated texture, some particulate aspect,
extending and layering them into sheets of sound many plies thick, the material
always capable of being listened to on several levels, the re-listener likely to pick
up aspects he missed the first few go-rounds. They often shift, as does the first track
here, "Nocturne", from relatively consonant and soft to more abrasive and
granular, though rarely if ever very harsh. The tracks are presented in reverse
chronological order and, though I enjoyed them all to some degree, I really liked
the older two the best; not sure what that says! Those earlier ones have a bit more
grit and grime in the works, providing more of a textural variation between the sine
hums and the detritus. The last track, "Imaginative Elements", also contains a kind
of sparseness that's something of a tonic in relation to the earlier (later) ones. All
would be nice to hear within a video environment, btw, which is how I've
experienced his work on occasion. But on the whole, the four works are fine and
excellent samples of both Garet's music and this neck of the sonic woods
generally. Recommended! (Brian Olewnick)
Four pieces, each about 1/2 hour long, from 2004-2009. Garet is an expert in the
art of the "grainy drone", taking sound sources that may be natural or industrial,
usually with some amount of variegated texture, some particulate aspect,
extending and layering them into sheets of sound many plies thick, the material
always capable of being listened to on several levels, the re-listener likely to pick
up aspects he missed the first few go-rounds. They often shift, as does the first track
here, "Nocturne", from relatively consonant and soft to more abrasive and
granular, though rarely if ever very harsh. The tracks are presented in reverse
chronological order and, though I enjoyed them all to some degree, I really liked
the older two the best; not sure what that says! Those earlier ones have a bit more
grit and grime in the works, providing more of a textural variation between the sine
hums and the detritus. The last track, "Imaginative Elements", also contains a kind
of sparseness that's something of a tonic in relation to the earlier (later) ones. All
would be nice to hear within a video environment, btw, which is how I've
experienced his work on occasion. But on the whole, the four works are fine and
excellent samples of both Garet's music and this neck of the sonic woods
generally. Recommended! (Brian Olewnick)
PARIS TRANSATLANTIC (FEBRUARY 2010)
A double CD featuring compositions dating between 2004 and 2009, Four
Malleable is an excellent introduction to Richard Garet's strategies. One of the
most noticeable traits of this artist's vision is the constant transition between
different states, as, with a degree of analytical coldness, he designs platforms for
sonic events to develop gradually yet unpredictably, giving the listener a chance
to connect with a particular environment before becoming an active
psychoacoustic participant in its progressive alteration. Several of these
soundscapes tend towards instability only partially camouflaged by Garet's
accurate placement of detail. 2005's "From Modified Tapes" explores settings that
range from the accumulation of murmured pressure and reverberant vibration
(substantial to the point of near-opacity) to the ever-puzzling seduction of remote
metropolitan echoes. The processing filter lets emerge just a few identifiable
factors – heavily equalized voices, in this case – from an unbearably dense fog
hiding whatever meaning might lie behind. The composer declares to have been
focussing on "materiality, malleability, process, and on the aural digital
permutations resulted from computer synthesis". Yet the sharp nuances of certain
frequencies, fused with the absence of physical weight typifying some of these
pieces, dispel any doubt relative to concreteness, for in Garet's conception tactile
matter seems to be a mere instrument for attempting an improved classification of
our fundamental nature. (Massimo Ricci)
A double CD featuring compositions dating between 2004 and 2009, Four
Malleable is an excellent introduction to Richard Garet's strategies. One of the
most noticeable traits of this artist's vision is the constant transition between
different states, as, with a degree of analytical coldness, he designs platforms for
sonic events to develop gradually yet unpredictably, giving the listener a chance
to connect with a particular environment before becoming an active
psychoacoustic participant in its progressive alteration. Several of these
soundscapes tend towards instability only partially camouflaged by Garet's
accurate placement of detail. 2005's "From Modified Tapes" explores settings that
range from the accumulation of murmured pressure and reverberant vibration
(substantial to the point of near-opacity) to the ever-puzzling seduction of remote
metropolitan echoes. The processing filter lets emerge just a few identifiable
factors – heavily equalized voices, in this case – from an unbearably dense fog
hiding whatever meaning might lie behind. The composer declares to have been
focussing on "materiality, malleability, process, and on the aural digital
permutations resulted from computer synthesis". Yet the sharp nuances of certain
frequencies, fused with the absence of physical weight typifying some of these
pieces, dispel any doubt relative to concreteness, for in Garet's conception tactile
matter seems to be a mere instrument for attempting an improved classification of
our fundamental nature. (Massimo Ricci)
TJ NORRIS (APRIL 2010)
An astonishing talent continues rising as Richard Garet slowly unveils the richly
embedded hues that encompass his latest release, Four Malleable. Broken into
four stealthy long parts Nocturne offsets things from the top, long before we cross
any bridge. A bit of a luminescent drone collage harkening early Thomas Köner.
Lapping and drifting, then soaring it’s quite oceanic in scope, and a bit of head
trip. It scales outward, feels quite expansive, yet subtly rocks the intimate side of
the center of your chest. Deep bass rumbling makes way for something that
simulates a creepy, low-fi invasive presence, then quiets to a hollow atonal
frequency and elapses into static white noise like a fine mist waterfall. And that’s
just track one. The remaining work follows suit, with high-pitched sine waves and
molded experimentation. Two untitled tracks couldn’t be more different, one a bit
unnerving dabbling in minimal crispy static while the other sounds like a
document of floating in open space, muffled voices, et al. At thirty-one minutes
'Sceneries' is the lengthiest track here and doesn’t skimp on the tonal/pitch play of
bells and motors that bring about both sounds of rapid intensity and breathy
sensuality. Though take this one a half hour at a time, especially for beginners. If
you’ve got a surround system this double disc set is a must — Instructions: play
loud in low light. (TJ Norris)
An astonishing talent continues rising as Richard Garet slowly unveils the richly
embedded hues that encompass his latest release, Four Malleable. Broken into
four stealthy long parts Nocturne offsets things from the top, long before we cross
any bridge. A bit of a luminescent drone collage harkening early Thomas Köner.
Lapping and drifting, then soaring it’s quite oceanic in scope, and a bit of head
trip. It scales outward, feels quite expansive, yet subtly rocks the intimate side of
the center of your chest. Deep bass rumbling makes way for something that
simulates a creepy, low-fi invasive presence, then quiets to a hollow atonal
frequency and elapses into static white noise like a fine mist waterfall. And that’s
just track one. The remaining work follows suit, with high-pitched sine waves and
molded experimentation. Two untitled tracks couldn’t be more different, one a bit
unnerving dabbling in minimal crispy static while the other sounds like a
document of floating in open space, muffled voices, et al. At thirty-one minutes
'Sceneries' is the lengthiest track here and doesn’t skimp on the tonal/pitch play of
bells and motors that bring about both sounds of rapid intensity and breathy
sensuality. Though take this one a half hour at a time, especially for beginners. If
you’ve got a surround system this double disc set is a must — Instructions: play
loud in low light. (TJ Norris)
SCRAPYARD FORCAST (JANUARY 2010)
Richard Garet is a name that I'm not all too familiar with. He's a visual artist from
New York who creates scores of wonderful drone music as accompaniment to his
films. His collaboration with Brendan Murray released in March entitled Of
Distance is a big year end favourite amongst critics. That albums in the mail, but I
can assure you that if its even remotely as good as Four Malleable, its would have
probably ended up on this list too. Four Malleable is another album that turns its
focus on the tactile drone, a sub genre that has recently ignited every flammable
part of my psyche. Garet focuses a microscope on his compositions, the fading in
and out of gritty minimalist fragments is only interrupted by pockets of
mini-typhoon swells and extraterrestrial frequencies. Almost two hours of material
here, and its all worth while.
Richard Garet is a name that I'm not all too familiar with. He's a visual artist from
New York who creates scores of wonderful drone music as accompaniment to his
films. His collaboration with Brendan Murray released in March entitled Of
Distance is a big year end favourite amongst critics. That albums in the mail, but I
can assure you that if its even remotely as good as Four Malleable, its would have
probably ended up on this list too. Four Malleable is another album that turns its
focus on the tactile drone, a sub genre that has recently ignited every flammable
part of my psyche. Garet focuses a microscope on his compositions, the fading in
and out of gritty minimalist fragments is only interrupted by pockets of
mini-typhoon swells and extraterrestrial frequencies. Almost two hours of material
here, and its all worth while.