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It would be easy to dismiss the field of minimalist music as samey, a sparse soundscape where an almost imperceptible background hum is occasionally penetrated by the odd electronic effect or a field recording of a burbling stream and birdsong. These two new releases on the Home Normal label demonstrate perfectly why that would be a mistake.

… Engaged Touches by Celer is the flipside of the minimalist coin. Put this on as background music and you probably wouldn’t hear it, you really do have to listen to this. Dreamlike and expansive, this is the kind of minimalism that by rights you should listen to in a specially designed pod. This is the music of the future that played out in 1970s science fiction films. Celer, produce music which has an infinite nature.  At times barely more than a notion, it gently swells and rolls, single notes strung out over minutes. The sweep of Engaged Touches is at times breathtakingly beautiful.

http://www.suitcaseorchestra.com/2010/08/elian-whispers-then-silence-celer-engaged-touches/

Recorded towards the end of 2008 using only a vintage analogue synthesizer and a mixing board, Dying Star is an eight-part, fifty-minute work from drone purists Celer, whose inscrutable discography continues to expand at a healthy rate. The accompanying notes state that the motivation behind these pieces was to create something rooted in improvisation that captured a sense of being “completely pure and secluded”, that “stands as a fading presentation of memory, time, and loss, set against the ending day”. Typical of this act’s elusive, understated output, Dying Star is mastered at a very low volume – something that encourages cranked up headphone listening. Once your playback levels are adjusted accordingly, the continuous ebb and flow of warm tones proves powerfully immersive and crystalises itself at key moments of self-contained loveliness – in particular the eleven-minute ‘How I Imagine My Hand Holds Yours’ which seems to be the most dynamic and well-rounded track of the bunch. Never ones to employ excessively showy or contrived techniques, Celer continue to very quietly excel in their field by hinting at the elegant simplicity of early electronic drone music.

http://boomkat.com/cds/328279-celer-dying-star

Dying Star was recorded in the fall of 2008, using only a vintage analog synthesizer and mixing board. It was completely improvised, with no overdubs or post-processing. The intention was to produce a completely improvised work while remaining completely pure and secluded, the resulting recording stands as a fading presentation of memory, time, and loss, set against the ending day.

Presented at a low volume, the ideal and intended procedure for listening is with headphones, with the volume set specifically at 80%. Through intimacy, tenderness, and isolation, the resulting imaginings are stately presented, yet consistently withering away; and throughout the duration, energy pushes forward, strains, explodes, but eventually crumbles.

‘We are nothing but a view of the world.’
– Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Celer have a tireless work ethic. “In Escaping Lakes” was one of nearly a dozen albums released by the duo in 2009, and they currently have a number of 2010 releases to their name as well. In their apparently enduring effort to make the quietest ambient drone possible, they have crafted an album to match the minutiae of life– gentle breezes and flowing streams whispering tales of the Earth that span millions of years.

Time becomes imperceptible in the midst of the slow drones on “In Escaping Lakes.” The piece, roughly forty minutes, is comprised of a handful of smaller movements. Everything moves at a languid pace, slowly gliding along, never deviating from its uniform ambient wanderings. The collected piano, gong, strings, electronics, flutes, and more all come together in an act of audio osmosis, seamlessly forging a beautiful whole from the parts of many.

It’s difficult to write a review for such an ephemeral piece of music. The drones here seem to fade into existence, and then vanish just as quietly as they came. “In Escaping Lakes” is certainly beautiful, but its opacity demands a lot from the listener. 7/10 — Robert Oberlander

Hum drops along
my hairs and hems
the tears together
in a cross-stitch climbing staffs,
Into Middle C

Amount in sums,
The empty spaces
swell and swaying
in almost dirge thrums

My eyelids burn to
meet another
A chaste kiss
that is
awful maddening under such
circumstances

After which I dream

The album “Pockets of Wheat” consists of a single hour-long track. There are no songs, lyrics or hooks. You learn little from the packaging except that it was recorded in a motel in North Texas, and was inspired by the vast surrounding wheat fields. I’ve listened to the record six or seven times, and always there is the undeniable image in my mind of those wheat fields, the barely perceptible changes in the waves as the wind stops and shifts. You imagine these Californians sitting in the wheat, closing their eyes and dreaming of the ocean.

Instrumental, and especially ambient music, is anathema to pop. Its pleasures are of a different element. Since the music lacks an obvious narrative, ambient recordings tend to absorb meaning from the listening environment, from the environment in which the music was created, and sometimes from the story of its creators. In the case of Celer, the ambient drone husband-and-wife duo Danielle Baquet-Long and Will Long, their recordings will forever be shadowed by Danielle’s untimely death of congenital heart failure, in 2009. If any recording should stand as a memorial to her, this one certainly is stately and elegant and smart enough to be it.

Celer released dozens of records in only a few years, and apparently there are nearly as many records in the vault. There is a clear curious and prolific energy in all of their work, and repeatedly they convey their ideas through a structure based on nature, in creatively physical ways. On 2008’s “Nacreous Clouds,” the music was synchronized with the movement of clouds. But their work would be mere modern art experimentation if it weren’t for the inherent, indescribable joy at its center. Celer is on a celestial journey imbued with private love.

Most drone music doesn’t hit you in the heart the way this does, and such a profound feeling of languorous warmth doesn’t just come from knowing the band’s story—that is, a couple transcending letters, expressing themselves in extended drone. Try to imagine them in that motel room, recording the cello, piano, violin, tambourine and vocals that went into this record, but you’ll never hear verisimilitude in this recording—all those sounds have been melted down to a whirring, stirring current of gold, glinting in late-day sun.

In interviews, Celer spoke about their songs as if they were gifts for each other. At once abstract and calm, “Pockets of Wheat” feels like heavy emotion, the way it can feel like a physical burden. But the private glimmering messages will never be decoded, which is why this recording manages to exude romance with nothing but minimal, sometimes menacing sounds. 8/10 — Eric Braden (28 July, 2010)

Hypnotising, confounding, beautiful: Chubby Wolf – Ornitheology

On 8 July—the anniversary of Danielle Baquet-Long’s death—in a rather lovely coincidence, her first posthumous release, Ornitheology, landed on my doormat • That was the standard edition, released in a typically short run of 125 copies by Digitalis—by now, of course, very sold out • Yesterday, the special edition arrived, in an even shorter run of just 21 copies, the cassette housed in a black wallet, replete with pink bow fixed to the front, all made from rather-curious-to-hold-but-very-striking-to-behold latex; designed by fashion’s latex goddess Sophie Richardoz, it gives the release an exotic, sensuous & highly tactile quality • Despite their resurgence in recent times, cassette releases have a tendency to appear less substantial than those on other media, in part due to the (usually) shorter durations they occupy • But Ornitheology is a different entity, its brace of tracks amounting to over 90 minutes of music, a demonstrative statement of intent as well as an article of faith in the cassette medium •

For listeners accustomed to the endlessly new & diverse but ever unified output from Celer, it can feel somewhat difficult to extricate Baquet-Long’s parallel Chubby Wolf project • A simplistic view would be to regard it as a solo extension of Celer’s work—after all, her material obviously carries many of the hallmarks of the established Celer sound • But on both her previous releases—the EP Meandering Pupa & album L’Histoire—a notably different sound, i feel, emerges; one that might be described as more focussed & intense, more austere, & certainly more demanding (which is not to suggest Celer’s music lacks these qualities; far from it) • Indeed, both these releases, with their firm sense of patience & restraint, & the resultant cool, aloof textures, are in fact a world away from most Celer, really akin only to their great anomaly, Sieline • Baquet-Long is clearly an independent force to be reckoned with on her own terms •
Ornitheology, however, is the first Chubby Wolf release to acknowledge & assimilate the warmer musical climes inhabited by Celer; it’s fitting, therefore, that the work is dedicated to husband Will • The latter track, “Phantasmagoria Of Nothingness (Prey To Our Emotions)”, is something of a hybrid; the austerity remains in the narrow dynamic range & minimal activity—exhibited most emphatically in the droning pitch (C) that sits in the foreground for much of the track’s duration • However, this note is drenched in a gentle, drifting fog that prevents it from becoming irritatingly persistent, muting it & causing the surface to ripple & undulate • The effect is disconcerting: too warm to be ascetic, too cool to be ecstatic; the music hypnotises, confounding attempts to ‘place’ it, & the more i’ve listened to it, the more i’ve realised one needs to embrace the uncertainty • i’ll admit i was initially not so keen on this track, but it’s slowly (& completely) won me over, in no small part due to its reluctance to do precisely that •

On the other hand, the first track, “On Burnt, Gauzed Wings”, consciously allows in far greater warmth • At first listen, little is that different: narrow dynamics (if anything, narrower than its successor), slow movement, no extremes (high/low frequencies are entirely absent), but there’s an abundance of richness allowed to flourish here that is nothing short of breathtaking • It’s a richness that manifests itself strongest in a powerful shifting tide of harmonies that reverberate out & around like distant musicians slowly improvising in a vast cathedral • But ultimately, hyperbole & metaphors seem rather redundant in the face of music that’s simply as beautiful as this track is; of course, a great deal of the material issued by Dani & Will could be described in that way, but this really is something else • Anyone familiar with Celer’s 2008 album I Love You So Much I Can’t Even Title This (The Light That Never Goes Out Went Out) will know what i mean about intense beauty; “On Burnt, Gauzed Wings” really is as good as that •

Only a few weeks ago, i was lamenting the fact that, having listened to very many 2010 releases, not one of them had struck me as an unblemished 5-star candidate • Finally, that lament is over; except to say, of course, that there was an unavoidable sadness in listening to such a gorgeous album from one no longer with us • But Danielle Baquet-Long’s music ultimately conveys such a deep-seated elation that tears—even tears of joy—evaporate in its wake • This is a rare, marvellous album, one of the best from one of the best •

5:4 rating: 5/5

http://5-against-4.blogspot.com/2010/07/hypnotising-confounding-beautiful.html