Considering the album’s title suggests a bleak monochromatic soundscape, Colin Potter and Phil Mouldycliff quickly confounded my limited expectations with their vivid field recordings and processed sounds. They take us by the hand and lead us on a tour of a sleepy village found somewhere between the Mediterranean coast and the edge of consciousness. Trembling and sonorous, the music the pair generate over the course of the album is rich with delicate textures and hidden beauty.
The opening section brings to mind Luc Ferrari’s Presque Rien but Potter and Mouldycliff wrap their recordings in a kaleidoscopic haze. Babbling conversations are heard through a psychedelic filter, the words becoming indistinct with only a glimmer of recognition remaining. With crystal clarity, church bells ring over the hubbub to reinforce my mental image of a small, sunny village hidden between green hills. Even later in the album when the detail of these field recordings fades to a rough outline, the genial ambience of the original sounds is maintained throughout Grey Skies on Asphalt.
As the album progresses, the source materials become more obscured by Potter and Mouldycliff’s manipulations. The middle section of the album leaves behind identifiable sounds almost completely: what sounds like radio interference could be anything. Even when some remnant of familiarity is retained, the sounds are being heard from an angle that is a novelty. Murky voices become giant and alien (although strangely unthreatening) and warm humming noises are presented along with shimmering tones to maintain the character of that sunny day in a country community. The church bells may remain ever present but despite their distinct sound, they begin to collapse in on themselves, their essence transmutated into new forms by the duo.
Each time I listen to Grey Skies on Asphalt, I cannot help but sink into a relaxed reverie. The album’s capacity for inducing Technicolor daydreams is immense; both Potter and Mouldycliff are well able to create mentally stimulating sound works on their own but this collaborative effort has intensified their talents greatly. When the album finally comes around full circle to the untreated field recordings, it is only then that I realize how far Potter and Mouldycliff have brought me on their journey.
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