artist: ANDREW DUKE
title: Environmental Politics
catalog number: and/9
release year: 2003
status: sold out
title: Environmental Politics
catalog number: and/9
release year: 2003
status: sold out
This new enigmatic and atmospheric 3" release displays yet another side to the
works of the already versatile Canadian sound artist, DJ, and music journalist
Andrew Duke. It was initially intended as an abstract sonic commentary on how
some politicians (particularly in his home town of Halifax, Nova Scotia), tend to
have misplaced priorities when it comes to placing importance on preserving
the natural environment. Therefore he writes: "I often use the sounds of Halifax
in my work as my way of commenting on how something so beautiful (our harbor)
is destroyed through (in)action -- we've been pumping our untreated sewage into
the harbor for over 200 years and the city is still more interested in building new
roads and buildings than sewage treatment plants. There are outbreaks every
summer from people who get sick from the water because it is so contaminated;
so some of the edgier (moments) are about that -- (i.e.) the illnesses we bring
upon ourselves." Includes one track with Anne Sulikowski (Building Castles Out
Of Matchsticks).
works of the already versatile Canadian sound artist, DJ, and music journalist
Andrew Duke. It was initially intended as an abstract sonic commentary on how
some politicians (particularly in his home town of Halifax, Nova Scotia), tend to
have misplaced priorities when it comes to placing importance on preserving
the natural environment. Therefore he writes: "I often use the sounds of Halifax
in my work as my way of commenting on how something so beautiful (our harbor)
is destroyed through (in)action -- we've been pumping our untreated sewage into
the harbor for over 200 years and the city is still more interested in building new
roads and buildings than sewage treatment plants. There are outbreaks every
summer from people who get sick from the water because it is so contaminated;
so some of the edgier (moments) are about that -- (i.e.) the illnesses we bring
upon ourselves." Includes one track with Anne Sulikowski (Building Castles Out
Of Matchsticks).
EAR / RATIONAL (APRIL 2004)
Electric tickles on your ear, the (for the lack of a better word) percussion sounds
like someone rolling marbles across my skull - too bad I can't fell them. A drawn
out melody spirals and tones pull. The following track has luscious water sounds,
low pitched from deep inside a boat and something that sounds like the
splashing on top of the deck. Of course, these are not the real sounds, but a
feeling I get from their creation. A generated song that I love. Then, mmm, juicy
atmospheres, nothing except an emptiness. Room tone, and little else. What this
causes you to do is pay attention to your surroundings. I have equally been
listening to a light that I installed with a dimmer buzz and the far more tonal
music of my G4 fan. Time for bed, I guess. (Don Poe)
Electric tickles on your ear, the (for the lack of a better word) percussion sounds
like someone rolling marbles across my skull - too bad I can't fell them. A drawn
out melody spirals and tones pull. The following track has luscious water sounds,
low pitched from deep inside a boat and something that sounds like the
splashing on top of the deck. Of course, these are not the real sounds, but a
feeling I get from their creation. A generated song that I love. Then, mmm, juicy
atmospheres, nothing except an emptiness. Room tone, and little else. What this
causes you to do is pay attention to your surroundings. I have equally been
listening to a light that I installed with a dimmer buzz and the far more tonal
music of my G4 fan. Time for bed, I guess. (Don Poe)
IGLOO MICROVIEW VOLUME 7 (MARCH 2004)
* * * * 1/2 Halifax's Andrew Duke has released a brilliant mini nineteen-minute
three-track for Seattle's and/OAR. Its watery, ebullient austerity drifts in a shallow
depth of field on "Boil Order." The microtonal silent roar of the nearly fourteen
minute "Industrial Itch" is a drone based on a one second clip, as other tracks
here, it is derived from field recordings and other sound samples from cities in
Ontario and Nova Scotia. The mythic fade and placid ebb of faint bubbly cracks
in the surface are pale among the din drawl of the invisible wake here. Subtle as a
fly caress, while undulating througout the room, deeper than a San Francisco fog
atop Twin Peaks. (TJ Norris)
* * * * 1/2 Halifax's Andrew Duke has released a brilliant mini nineteen-minute
three-track for Seattle's and/OAR. Its watery, ebullient austerity drifts in a shallow
depth of field on "Boil Order." The microtonal silent roar of the nearly fourteen
minute "Industrial Itch" is a drone based on a one second clip, as other tracks
here, it is derived from field recordings and other sound samples from cities in
Ontario and Nova Scotia. The mythic fade and placid ebb of faint bubbly cracks
in the surface are pale among the din drawl of the invisible wake here. Subtle as a
fly caress, while undulating througout the room, deeper than a San Francisco fog
atop Twin Peaks. (TJ Norris)
VITAL WEEKLY #394 WEEK 43 (2003)
Based on recordings made in cities, Andrew Duke has two relatively short tracks
and one long one. The first piece is entirely based upon a one second sound,
being filtered, stretched, looped, and otherwise electronically changed, whereas
the recording of water is the basis of the second piece, which is quite noisy (and
short). The final piece, over thirteen minutes long is also based on a one second
sound sample, but it seems here just basically stretched out, with just a few
minimal alternations going on. A bit too minimal for my taste, although it brings
the work of Duke into different fields, away from the more rhythmic outings of
recent. (Frans de Waard)
Based on recordings made in cities, Andrew Duke has two relatively short tracks
and one long one. The first piece is entirely based upon a one second sound,
being filtered, stretched, looped, and otherwise electronically changed, whereas
the recording of water is the basis of the second piece, which is quite noisy (and
short). The final piece, over thirteen minutes long is also based on a one second
sound sample, but it seems here just basically stretched out, with just a few
minimal alternations going on. A bit too minimal for my taste, although it brings
the work of Duke into different fields, away from the more rhythmic outings of
recent. (Frans de Waard)
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