Celer’s ‘Engaged Touches’ was the second release on the Home Normal label in 2009 – which in fact sold out before it even went on sale. This fact alone justifies this (1000 edition) re-release.
The somewhat misleading cover photo may trick an unsuspecting passenger into thinking this is a new Konono No. 1 or Staff Benda Bilili release, but the music tells quite a different story.

“…an absorbing combination of classic ambient, minimalism, and – perhaps as the most distinct characteristic – overwhelming romanticism. Longing, melancholy, nostalgia, and the like seem to be recurring themes in Will and Dani’s works.”
(original liner notes)

Will Thomas Long and Danielle Baquet-Long were ambient music’s ‘prodigy couple’. They seemed to breathe music from every moment they were together, creating an immense catalogue of music that was immediately recognisable as theirs. Celer’s fiercely romantic musical style thus quickly became the ‘standard’ other ambient music was compared to.

Until Dani’s sudden, and unexpected death in July, 2009 (aged 26) dramatically ended the Celer “project”. “Engaged Touches’, recorded in 2006/2008, thematically deals with travelling to unknown destinies – the musical parts are interlinked by field recordings including train exterior and sleeper car. It only adds to the saddening and heartbreaking mystery of Celer.

In the end, the music of Celer should not be judged by the personal drama that lies behind, but on the musical quality in itself. It should be remembered that this music was not created in memory of Dani’s death, but in happy times – times of harmony and musical interactivity. Like many other Celer releases, “Engaged Touches” shows an exceptional couple at their musically creative peak, working together in perfect harmony. All music they recorded together can only be releases in loving memory of Danielle Baquet-Long.

http://www.vancooten.com/blog/?e=334

“The moon tonight seemed brighter than the sun, the brightest it could be without hurting my eyes. I wanted to call you, to tell you what I really wanted, but I didn’t. Maybe you were already there, looking at the moon, its amber beams reflecting in your eyes, I imagined. Then and again a glint bounces back up to the honey moon, the angle of reflection passing perfectly to where I’m standing, covered in a transparent, shining blanket of light. Each thing is mine, unless the wind wanted it for herself.” — Danielle Baquet-Long, September 2008. Limited edition of 111 pro-dubbed & imprinted c66 tapes w/ double-sided jcard and insert.

Celer. That’s a name I ain’t heard in a while. Honest! It was inevitable there’d be stacks of lovingly-crafted drones from the sadly separated pair left in the vaults. What is really cool is that Dani’s photography archive is getting a wider audience, her carefully chosen evocative images adorn this spiritual mong out of a record. The calm drones of ‘A’ conclude with a gritty rumbling sound, the sort of noise you’d equate with lying in a quiet motorway lay-by with your ear to the ground, being careful not to get splatted by some renegade Danish trucker in a big arctic, stopping for a Ginsters & a ciggie. The flip is a more ecstatic, steadily ascending piece, full of breathtaking wonder. When they kick these slabs of shimmering, heavenly drone out I feel as if i’m getting a true glimpse into the heart of the cosmos. Turn this side up double loud, it rules! Lovely……………

http://www.normanrecords.com/records/120772

Released in a limited edition of 350 copies, this new 10″ from the Basses Frequences imprint features two companion compositions to the the Panoramic Dreams Bathed In Seldomness. A melting pot of electronics, analogue tape manipulation, strings and field recordings (of thunder and a freight train), these tracks perhaps sound ‘bigger’ than much of Celer’s output, and yet the principles behind the duo’s stringently minimalist approach remain in check. The end result sounds like an orchestra in cryogenically suspended animation. A-side ‘Retreading Obsessions’ (recorded in Mississippi during 2007) dwells on a single, giant, weary chord for eight minutes or so, before wrapping up with a dissection of some detuned, blurry concrete sound. Providing a slightly more extroverted variation on this sort of scrupulously reductive compositional approach, ‘The Acceptance Of A Paralyzed Infinity’ (recorded in NYC during 2007) lets a little more light into the mix and reveals a greater level of melodic detail wafting around inside the drone. As was the case with certain portions of their Panoramic Dreams… album, both these pieces invite comparison to William Basinski’s elegiac tape-loop orchestrations, and the EP is certainly recommended to anyone with a penchant for that sort of enigmatic ambient composition.

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/344230-celer-weavings-of-a-rapid-disenchantment

Will Thomas Long y Danielle Baquet-Long estuvieron activos desde 2004 autoeditando en su propio sello Celer y editando varios CD-R’s y CD’s en sellos independientes de Estados Unidos y Europa. Este proyecto terminó en julio 2009 con motivo del fallecimiento Danielle a los 26 años el 8 de julio. En este álbum que consiste en dos partes entrega una composición ambient y minimalismo realizado con una amalgama de instrumentos y técnicas como piano, cuerdas, efectos, arreglos, cintas, campana, silbatos y grabaciones de campo. “Engaged Touches” está cerca del ambient clásico cubierto de un tapiz de drones, secciones de cuerdas que me recuerdan a Stars Of The Lid. Este CD podría ser la banda sonora de paisajes románticos.

http://www.loop.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=697&Itemid=27

New 10″ on Basses Frequences, containing two companion tracks to go with ‘Panoramic Dreams Bathed in Seldomness’.

Dying Star might be the purest Celer recording to date, though such a claim might seem questionable given the degree of purity that characterizes every release issued by Will Long and the late Danielle Baquet-Long under their project name. But consider: Dying Star was realized using nothing more than a vintage analog synthesizer and mixing board—no field recordings or instrument sound sources of the kind heard on other Celer recordings found their way into the recording process. Adding to the recording’s ascetic design, the eight-part work was completely improvised, and no overdubs or post-processing were involved either when it was recorded in the fall of 2008. In keeping with its elegiac title, the work exudes an hermetic and retiring character that can’t help but make it feel like gesture of mourning or requiem for the premature passing of Danielle and the eventual end to the Celer project itself—a memento mori, in other words (in Celer’s own words, the recording “stands as a fading presentation of memory, time, and loss, set against the ending day”); the track title used for the work’s longest part, the eleven-minute “I Imagine My Hand Holds Yours” would appear to confirm as much. As such, Dying Star unspools at a low volume level—the recommendation is included that one should listen to it via headphones with the volume set to eighty percent—with each graceful part appearing and slowly fading away, clearing a space for the next one to repeat the pattern. Throughout the recording’s fifty minutes, soft string- and whistling, organ-like tones rise and fall and advance and recede, often at levels that are so close to inaudible they create a level of tension that’s interestingly at odds with Dying Star’s overall peaceful character. The gradual withering away that occurs as each part moves towards its close proves, in fact, to be one of the most exquisite things about the recording, and the degree of detail is so purifed that the tiny starburst that appears at the start of the closing part, “Flickers (Goodnight),” has a far greater impact than such a small accent would otherwise have.

October 2010

http://www.textura.org/reviews/celer_dyingstar.htm

battiti – sept 22nd 2009

MATHIAS DELPLANQUE: Passeport 5 (Lille)
from “Passeports” (Bruit Clair 03/Crónica 048-2010)

AUTISTICI: Workshop for Ambitious Dreamers
from “Slow Temperature. Early Works Vol. II” (Audiobulb Records AB030)

CELER: Part 2 (excerpt)
from “Engaged Touches” (Home Normal HOME N002R)

TAYLOR DEUPREE: Rusted Oak
from “Shoals” (12k 12K1060)

CELER: Pouring Me Into the Rest of You
from “Dying Star” (Dragon’s Eye Recordings DER005)

AUTISTICI: Carved from Lips
from “Slow Temperature. Early Works Vol. II” (Audiobulb Records AB030)

MATHIAS DELPLANQUE: Passeport 3 (Dieppe)
from “Passeports” (Bruit Clair 03/Crónica 048-2010)

http://www.siltarecords.it/1moretime/battiti/Radio3.htm

Творческая деятельность «Celer» была окончательно приостановлена в июле 2009 года, но до сих пор продолжают выходить работы этого американского дуэта, коих накопилось, надо думать, еще на пятилетку вперед. Материал «Dying Star» бы записал осенью 2008 года и необычен, прежде всего, тем минимумом инструментов, с помощью которых были созданы эти восемь треков. Обычно Дэниель и Вилльям Лонг использовали звучание пианино, скрипок, флейт, полевые записи и прочие найденные звуки, замедляя их и перемешивая до состояния полной статики, но в этот раз у них в руках оказались только старый аналоговый синтезатор и микшерный пульт. Нельзя сказать, что полученный результат чем-то особенно отличается от прочих, весьма многочисленных работ дуэта – погружение в их обширную дискографию позволяет сделать выводы, что столь замечательные образцы неоклассики, привкус трайбл-эстетики и реверансы в сторону Брайна Ино и Стива Роача, явленные на таких, не побоюсь этого слова, шедеврах, как «The Everything And The Nothing» и «Engaged Touches», представлены в творчестве супругов скорее как приятные неожиданности и мимолетные эксперименты, а так звучание «Celer», что здесь, что в девяносто процентах их записей, тяготеет к минималистичному, неторопливому эмбиенту, манипуляциям с одинокой звуковой волной, неторопливо изгибаемой и преобразуемой на фоне тишины. Разбивка на композиции весьма условна – все фрагменты альбома перетекают один в другой, не прерываются ни на секунду, являя миру монолитную вещь, полностью передающую в своем звучании название альбома и служащую отличным саундтреком для заката, запечатленного на обложке. Однотонные звуки проносятся мимо, иногда заползая на территорию высоких и неуютных частот (впрочем, это фирменный прием музыкантов), иногда срываясь на вибрацию, но при этом все равно создают вокруг слушателя располагающую, «интимную атмосферу» – надо только запастись хорошими наушниками и отгородится от реальности. Да, еще хорошо, чтобы в окна падали лучи заходящего солнца, остывая и растворяясь в темноте вместе с последними звуками «Flickers». Если подобные эксперименты со звучанием не вызывают у вас стойкое отторжение (вроде бы не должны), то этот релиз подойдет вам стопроцентно.

http://maeror3.livejournal.com/#item168228