Basil Kirchin released two landmark works of musique concrête in the early 1970's entitled Worlds Within Worlds,then disappeared from the face of the earth. I've never heard theseearly classics as they've remained hopelessly out of print for thirtyyears, even as such music luminaries as Drew Daniel (of Matmos and TheSoft Pink Truth) gushed that Kirchin's works were "immersive, dark andmagical." Trunk Records does the next best thing to a re-issue with Quantum, a previously unreleased full-length album recorded during the same time period as the pieces on Worlds Within Worlds.Kirchin's peculiar genius lies in his effortless juxtapositions andmutations of sampled environments, free jazz skronk, unexpected vocalsamples and subtle electronic harmonies. Quantum is a uniquelyenthralling journey through microtonal events - creating rich, deeplycaptivating ecosystems of sound. The power of Quantum holds up next to classic concrete works such as Tod Dockstader's Apocalypse and Roger Doyle's Rapid Eye Movements."Part One" begins with field recordings of squawking geese togetherwith the lovely melodic swells of a synthesized organ. The voice of awoman, possibly Kirchin's wife, intones in a breathy, rapturouswhisper: "No one can find me or see my face, but I am there. You waitand see. Something special will come from me." The geese return, butthey have been slowed down and mutated, dripping like ghostly treacleas the quartet of avant-jazz improvisers take prominence. It is herethat Kirchin unveils his affinity for time-stretching - slowing downsound sources to highlight spectral microcosms that lie unpotentiatedon the surface of environmental sounds. This was certainly an importantforerunner to the object-sampling strategies of Matmos, who use newertechnologies to underscore the same kind of audio minutiae. ThoughKirchin seems to consider his quartet of improvisers as just anothersound event to be amplified, faded, mutated and re-assembled, theplaying itself is fantastic - fiery, dynamic and emotive. There are noalbum credits, but research reveals the skeletal guitar improvisationsto be the work of Derek Bailey, and the other players should berecognizable to British improv enthusiasts. "Part Two" uses the samesound sources as the first, but adds incredibly disarming audio samplesof autistic children. Their primitive, pre-verbal ululations hold astrange magic in this context. Part of the fascination of Quantumis discovering just how similar the bleats of a tenor sax are to themutterings of geese, how a vibraphone and a guitar can have a strangedialogue against a backdrop of a human voice, pitched and distorted tosound like the roar of a lion. Quantum creates an innovativeenvironment in which the mind is freed to make surprising connections,building its own neural pathways to navigate this dark, undiscoveredworld of quantum changes.samples:
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