Richard Chartier is a designer, an artist, and perhaps, a neat freak. Throughout his recent work, Chartier has continued to present sound as design – clean, simple design, implying colors and direct lines and shapes; a spotless, modern room; a series of colored screens. His release on Crouton predates this taste, when things were a bit more complex, a bit more intense. And as his recent work sucks the listener into white space, Archival1991 takes you straight into a black hole, in the most comfortable way imaginable. This is a different kind of clean simplicity. The work is beautiful, stunning, and most of all, complexly powerful. The recording is based on two compositions from 1991, using analog and digital synthesizers. In 2003, these original pieces were used as source material for this new work, resulting in an extremely intriguing revisit, and aesthetically true to much of his work from the same period.
—Crouton Music Label Press Release
+
Listening through headphones is the only way one can appreciate – or even hear – the subtleties of Richard Chartier’s current body of work. This self-contained, highly mediated headspace effectively removes the listener from the context of the real, and allows Charter free access to move tiny plastic sounds around in an ultra quiet form of minimalism. Despite (or possibly because of) these contraints, he often succeeds in his poetry of the micro-fragment and Archival 1991 also carries an aestehtic of control in a revisitation of hes earlier industrially tinged dronescapes. This attractive and expansive tapestry of sound manifests an undefinably paranoic ambience that reflects the aesthetics of early 90s contemporaries such as Lustmord, Schloss Tegel, and PGR. The control mechanisms of Archival 1991 take root in the shadowy metaphors that reflect a slice of the sublime.
—The Wire, UK
+
Magnificent. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard. Well lets just say it made a big impression… (Chartier’s) work explores the relationship between sound, silence, focus, and the act of listening. This sentence sums up exactly what this piece portrays. It is based on two compositions from 1991, using analog and digital synthesisers. These pieces were then used as source material for this piece in 2003. When you sit down and listen to this piece you are immediately sucked into a rush of sound which brings you on a long and speedy journey through another space and time. The speed which this sound implies is hard to explain. Its something akin perhaps flying a space craft at a speed nearing the speed of light. Quite an intense listening experience even though there is the minimal amount of changes happening. This sound takes you on a journey either into another world or deep inside yourself. The dynamics fluctuate gradually throughout the piece providing rises in intensity. There is also an underlying deep groaning sound like a sleeping creature breathing, accompanying this soundworld. The make up of the main sound is a stunning timbral gem. Many overtones and hidden tones and other things can be heard if you open your ears to whats happening. Imaginary sounds begin to happen after some time also. It is an incredibly picturesque piece of music with which you can imagin so many different colours and scenes and create your own imaginary dreamscape. Tones do start to breathe in and out as the piece starts to calm and fade away and the speeding sucking sound has disappeared almost unbeknownst to the listener. A truly ear opening piece which has certainly given me an experience I all too rarely discover through music these days.
—Phosphor Magazine, Germany
+
Archival1991 is Richard Chartier’s reworking (in 2003) of two early synthesizer compositions originally recorded when he was just 20. It’s a seamless slow-motion trawl through a cavernous space, reminiscent at times of Thomas Koner’s Arctic soundscapes Nuuk and Permafrost(Chartier’s original compositions were roughly contemporary with the latter), though somewhat more intense – one senses an element of pulse somewhere in there, though it’s buried under layers of rich and reverberant sound. Those accustomed to the pristine clarity of Chartier’s recent work may be surprised at the lush texture, though the aesthetic is just as uncompromising. Put this one on if your air conditioning breaks down during a heat wave – it’ll cool you down.
—paristransatlantic.com
+
An initial simulacrum of tranquillity slowly develops an almost scary edge, transforming itself in a strict, no-genre music stretching all over the place. Richard Chartier’s Archival1991 takes its basic source from reworked analog and digital synthesizer sounds; its first minutes are characterized by an impressive series of resonant metallic blows, such as in giant bottles with air compressed inside, struggling to get out, yet just turning around itself. As the mass of sound flows on, getting thicker and surrounded with haze, it seems like it wants to possess you completely. Everything comes to an unstoppable sense of uncomfortable levitation; you just don’t know where this painful hovering will decide to land you. One thing’s for sure – a pleasure trip it ain’t: you have to listen hard and get all your faculties in place, otherwise your senses could betray. Chartier starts from very simple means to design an outlook of your own desperate will of surviving even the hardest ordeals; like a greybeard’s eyes, his music can surely wither you. Magnificent stuff.
—Touching Extremes, Italy
+
Emptiness; like the sound of hopelessness as you fall through wide corridors, surrounded on every side by an icy, metallic barrier and the flush of a chill wind suffocating any lingering thoughts of the natural world. Depressing? This kind of emptiness even devours depression, acting like a vacuum for emotion. There is no hope, only space. Whenever you think you see a light at the end of the cylinder, it turns out to be an illusion. This is not a dark place, rather an infinite reflection of light without source. You are falling quickly; the bite of the draft momentarily distracts you. In some way, giving into the downward spiral seems like the easiest way to crawl out– though at your speed, crawling would do little. No, this seems much more permanent. It is the sound of sudden death. Okay, I’ll back up. Luckily, the impressions I get from sound artist Richard Chartier’s strikingly minimal Archival 1991 are not quite as permanent as death. They are pretty extraordinary, capable of as much resonance as you’re willing to invest in them. Since there isn’t much “activity” involved in the single 46-minute track, the mind has plenty of time to wander into spaces most people probably shy away from as a matter of practice. This isn’t to say the music is boring, but merely suggestive where most commercially available stuff (even experimental) works in brighter, more persuasive colors. This CD probably requires an allotment of time alone (or with very attentive friends), in an uncluttered space. In truth, it probably requires a lot more than that, but if you’re willing to give it a chance, there are some pretty amazing/scary head games to play.
In addition to designing all his CD art, he’s had work featured at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art and Belfast’s Catalyst Arts gallery. His visual aesthetic seems to emphasize the sleek, minimal and straightforward, as if designing an instructional manual for members of a particularly eclectic deep-space exploration team might be his dream job. Fittingly, his music tends not to recall scenes from daily or natural life, but coolly impressionistic vignettes of a scientific world. He releases much of his music on his own Line imprint, though also put out an excellent compilation this year of his non-Line compositions, Other Materials. According to Chartier, Archival 1991 began as two synthesizer-based pieces originally created in 1991. This summer, he revisited (i.e., applied much digital trickery to) those pieces to form this release. As I hear it, he’s done a masterful job of integrating the source material into a seamless whole; Archival 1991not only doesn’t sound like a “remix”, it threatens to overwhelm whatever source might have gone into it. Although beginning hardly louder than the hum from your stereo, it’s the kind of piece that will draw you in before you realize how much time has passed. Strictly speaking, this is ambient music, but that shouldn’t imply that it’s sterile. The piece works through many ebbs and flows. It begins subtly, sounding not unlike the angry sea as heard through a conch shell. Throughout, I’m reminded of the open sound of rushing wind or large bodies of water. A few minutes later, I realize the sound has become more intense, as if nearer the heart of a turbulent current. Furthermore, there are passing washes of bass, guttural in their pitch, but as smooth as a glacier. These washes become more pronounced (and deeper) as the piece reaches its midway point, and as such, the surrounding wind-like sounds retreat to the upper registers. Over time, the winds mostly subside, and the bass seems more focused– though that could be that I’ve become much more used to its patterns over the last half hour. Archival 1991 ends as these bass movements spiral into nothingness. If this is emptiness, it is intimidating only in that we are left to our own devices to find a happy ending, or even recognizably “human” signposts along the way. However, it’s an impressive emptiness from an interesting composer.
—pitchfork.com
+
Perhaps the first thing that should be said of Archival 1991 is that it’s not entirely an archival recording. Originating as two compositions from 1991 that were made with analog and digital synthesizers, Chartier revisited them earlier this year and used them as source material for the single piece presented here; and though this is a new work, Chartier points out that he has “attempted to maintain the general aesthetic” of the original recordings. The result is one long piece, an icy, minimal drone that moves through various, slowly shifting stages, even if at times we feel that it is unchanging, the cold, desolate air brings with it new sensations, variations, at different intervals. It’s beautifully bleak, and an excellent drone piece, showing yet another side to Chartier’s evolving sound world, even if it does represent something of a look back in time. It puts the winter in your home, it transforms your floor into an arctic bed, your sofa into a snow belt, your table and chairs into a magnificent iceberg. Pull on your woolies, close your eyes, and press play…
—incursion.org
+
Milwaukee’s Crouton imprint ought to be quite proud of themselves – what a coups! On Archival 1991 tracks locked away from the title year have been revisited as Chartier has taken two original tracks and used them as source material combined to form a new work that runs at almost 47 minutes. The piece is like traveling through a long tunnel, metallic and hollow, humming movement that has an oblong shape and plays with certain gravity. In ways this could be early works of Christian Renou if it weren’t for the label. But what may distinguish this effort from others is its take on his own earlier work, building from original ideas that have a distinctly different resonance – and making the cycle of time resolve itself. Often artists will plant a seed and leave it to grow on its own path, rather than nurture it – and move on to other ideas – but when reviewing old notes, sketches, incomplete works and the like you may dig up a cache like this one. Free from the linear evolution of consistence, works from the vault can often engage new ideas that delve in old passions. This piece is dark ambience in the path trod on by luminaries like Thomas Koner, Biosphere and Nigel Ayers with multiple washes of edgy radiance. Its great to have something like this emerge from an artist whose work is often extremely formal and clean. Archival 1991 is not exactly pulling a 360, but Chartier has proven that he has ‘been there and done that’ – and with an inferred fetish for the dark side. An evocative work of art.
—Vital Weekly, The Netherlands
+
Chartier’s music tends towards minimalism, but bears witness to an expansive sense of scale and underlying sense of structure whose precision is almost sculptural. Points of sound – arrays in space – are carefully manicured and eased with gentle exactitude until they’re placed with perfect X, Y precision. The consummate digital artist Chartier is fully exploring the possibilities that digital space can offer and is, in many cases, single-handedly mapping those spaces. Archival1991 arrives in typically minimal packaging and is limited to only 500 numbered copies. A reworking, based on two compositions from 1991, the sound is more full than recent releases and remarkable when one considers he created it at the tender age of twenty. Recalling the density of Francisco Lopez’ recent works, Crouton accurately describe it as a journey “straight into a black hole” albeit “in the most comfortable way imaginable”. Pure works of composition – in the truest sense(s) of the word – Chartier’s audible structures operate between the worlds of painting, sculpture and sound. Considered as sculpture, whose primary matter is sound, his works are rarely rivalled and he inherits a well-established mantle, effortlessly picking up where previous incumbents left off.
—%Array / Fallt, N. Ireland
+
A well-taken care and fine presentation – as they are the editions of Crouton Music -, with clean and minimalista design, is the visual reflection that after opening this cardboard, will be shaped in the music of Richard Chartier. This sound/intallation artist and graphic designer, have an important background in experimental electronic music, collaborating with Nosei Sakata (*0), Kim Cascone [interviewed in loop and founder of anechoicmedia) and along with Taylor Deupree, founder of the 12K imprint based in New York, handles the sublabel of this last one, Line. This album is based on two compositions from 1991 on which Charties used analogue and digital synthesizers, being the first processed and used as source material for this album, whereas the original compositions were reprocessed and combined, turning them into something different. This CD which we have in our hands thanks to the kindness of Crouton Music, is a limited edition of 500 copies. The first and unique track shows a surrounded devastating landscapes made by drones and carving metallic sounds sliding on deep and dark spirals. As reference we can mention Robin Storey, when it provides with those remote places. Lasting of a low frequency it is transformed into something endlessly, that it invites to an active listening to perceive the slight changes and developments of the synthesized sounds. To the 38 minutes emerges new wave sounds that are subtle textures on a sonic base that resists to change. The intensity of this album shows a different facet of this artist from Washington, where each space is covered by a wall of sounds and with it it shows another face that at the moment develops in the imperceptible thing which it converges with silence.
—LOOP, Chile
+
Chartier seems to be of a new vangard of minimalist artists intent on making music as stark and blankly atmospheric as the visual art created to accompany it. Take a look at the sleeves he designed for several discs on the Intransitive label. It’s like he’s taking Matisse’s doctrine of “art as calming armchair” and altering it to read “art as empty tile floor.” Previous works on 12k and Line, the label founded by Chartier and Taylor Deupree, see the former exploring unique, if uninviting combinations of barely-audible bass tones, long stretches of silence, and bits of sharp glitch that stand out like signposts on a desert horizon. At least artists like Nerve Net Noise (for whom Chartier designed an Intransitive sleeve) lend a certain cheekiness to their otherwise inhuman sound. Until now, listening to Chartier’s music has been like witnessing the last wheeze of a city’s machines before blackout, an arresting experience to be sure, but only if you can summon the right mood. Lacking the necessary half-bottle of codeine, one might check outArchival 1991, a recently recorded, 45-min. piece using two of Chartier’s 1991 synthesizer compositions as sound sources. The result is a surprisingly complex and emotionally charged track, modelled around one very rich, though quite unsettling drone. It’s very hard to believe that such a multi-faceted, truly cavernous sound came from synths alone. A more believable scenario would place Chartier in a wind tunnel or an abandoned hangar, especially as the mass is modulated and twisted at what feels like a more natural or organic discretion. This work may not be the artist’s most accessible to date, but it is certainly the least liable to fall to the background. Each time I listen I feel transported to a different place; though often anxious and always non-discript, these spaces exist and are worthy of praise.
—brainwashed.com
+
Richard Chartier est avant tout connu comme designer. Pour autant il possde une belle carriere de musicien derrire lui. On compte du son actif plusieurs productions pour différents labels tous aussi pointus les uns que les autres (Trente Oiseaux, Line, Meme, Fallt). Aujourd’hui c’est sur le non moins trs sérieux label Crouton que sort ce nouvel album. R.Chartier a egalement collaboré avec Nosei Sakata de *0, Taylor Dupree et Kim Cascone au sein de 12k. On ne compte plus, enfin, ses apparitions dans des compilations diverses. Archival 1991 est compose d’une seule et unique pice. Cette dernire est basée sur deux autres pieces différentes qui furent réalisées en 1991 partir de synthetiseurs digitaux et analogiques. Le résultat pourrait presque faire froid dans le dos tant la musique de R.Chartier est sombre. On a l’impression en écoutant ce disque d?tre entra”né vers une lente chute vers les abysses. La lenteur sonore du Archival 1991 est assez saisissante. Suffisamment en tout cas pour se laisser envahir. Cette longue pice (plus de 46 minutes tout de mme) pourrait presque appara”tre comme mystique. Ce disque fait appel des forces totalement profondes et quasiment intemporelles. Quoiqu’il en soit c’est le genre de disque qui ne laisse gure indifférent pour quiconque est ouvert aux musiques un tant soit peu ambient. En tout cas si vous voulez acquérir ce disque a la beauté spectrale indéniable il va falloir vous dépcher. En effet, ce disque est limité a 500 malheureux exemplaires. On pourra regretter un si faible tirage mais les futurs possesseurs de ce disque n’auront pas ce genre de scrupules et pourront classer ce disque entre ceux de Lull et de Robert Rich.
—Liability Webzine, France
+
Archival 1991 un lavoro che permette di avvicinarsi alle prime cose in fatto di sperimentazione sonora affrontate dal sound designer Richard Chartier. Il lungo brano altro non che una rielaborazione di due vecchie composizioni del 1991 create tramite l?ausilio del sintetizzatore, analogico e digitale. La trascrizione ex novo ampliata con l’aggiunta di 17 minuti in pi nella durata. Nel complesso siamo distanti dal mood contemporaneo in cui architetture minimali e suoni radi di spessore incarnarnano la forza principale. Il pieno utilizzo dell’ambiente circostante, che va a diventare un vero e proprio studio di registrazione, ed il materiale di ricerca ottenuto prettamente da field recordings non stato ancora raggiunto. In questo caso il risultato, per il neofita in particolare, potrebbe apparire con un ‘senso’ ben preciso, dato che l’intera ‘suite’ poggia su drones profondi e catartici. Si va delineando un albore che fa da specchio ad un passato di matrice industrial. Di seguito si entra a pieno contatto con l’isolazionismo pi estremo dei primi anni 90, spingendo a tirare in ballo nomi quali Robert Rich, tolta da questo l’eccessiva carica statica, Biospehere e, perch no, il John Duncan dei primi periodi. La valutazione duplice: se si considera l’opera come testimonianza di un passato, alquanto tenebroso, possiamo confermare un certo interesse, ma se ci si attesta su una valutazione unicamente musicale l’opinione differente. L’ostinata ripetizione ci ricorda troppo quel vortice dark ambient che ha fatto il suo tempo senza lasciare particolari seguiti.
—Sands Zine, Italy
+
Der Begriff “Sounddesign” trifft am besten die Klange von Richard Chartier auf seinem neuen Album. Die Musik stammt aus dem jahr 1991, wird hier aber neu bearbeitet, klingt wie eine auf cd gebannte Klanginstallation und sollte auch so gehort werden. Ein einziger dreiviertelstundiger track, einfach, klar, raumlich. Anfangs schmal, entwickelt sich langsam ein maandernder raumfullender drone mit rohrenartigen und sehr hypnotischen klangen.
—DE:Bug, Germany
+
Die Arbeit von Richard Chartier scheint weitverzweigt, neben Musik beschattigt er sich mit Design , er veroffenlicht Bucher und er ist auf fast allen wichtingen Events zeitgenossischer Kunst wie der Transmediale in Berlinoder der Prix Ars Electronica (bei dem er mit einerehrenvollen Erwahnung geehrt wurde) zu finden. Bisher kannte ich die Musik Richard Chartier nur von seinem Beitrang zum Clicks & Cuts 2 sampler von Mille Plateaux. Archival1991 ist nun seine neuste Audio Veroffentlichung, die aus einem langen 46 minutigem Track besteht. Die Basis fur diesen Track bilden zwei Aufnahmen aus dem jahre 1991 – daher auch der Titel _und herausgekommen sind sehr hypnotische, kalte Drones, deren Aufbau relativ langsam, aber ohne den Verlust eines Spannungsmomentes erfolgt. Egal ob zum bewussten Zuhoren und Fallenlassen oder als Hintergrundbeschallung beim Arbeiten – die cd passt einfach
—Black, Germany
+
Ook de Amerikaanse experimentele sound designer Richard Chartier glipt door de mazen van het zich sluitende experimentele net. Hij bracht reeds releases uit op de toonaangevende, experimentele labels Trente Oiseaux, Line, Meme en FŠllt en op talloze compilaties. Archival1991is een archiefopname uit het jaar ’91 van de vorige eeuw en kwam destijds tot stand met wat analoge en digitale synthesizers. De opname werd recentelijk opgepoetst voor een rerelease op Crouton Records. Archival1991 is een bedwelmende, minimale compositie van ongeveer drie kwartier, waarin op het eerste zicht weinig of niks verandert. Beluister het ding echter met de koptelefoon en je hoort meteen hoe doorheen de holle sound – het lijkt wel of je door een oneindige tunnel loopt – allerlei microscopische structuren zich aan je blootgeven. Extreem maar intrigerend!
—Urbanmag, The Netherlands
+
El vacio, el vértigo, lo minœsculo, la pureza. Las materias con las que Richard Chartier trabaja suponen un desnudar de lo accesorio y lo emotivo, una bœsqueda esencial de los pulsos acœsticos: el acto de o’r mœsica entendido como arte. Por eso, cada vez m‡s que se escuchan. discos de una densidad casi palpable, para ponerlos a solas, para dejarse envolver. No siempre fue as’. a principios de los noventa, chartier le daba a los mantras infinitos con sonidos sintéticos.Archival1991 recupera dos piezas de aquella época, y las rehace con los perceptos que el neoyorquino maeja en la actualidad. Y no es exactamente un remix, sino que las pistas originales se utilizan como fuente para una nuva composicion, en la que el sonido arranca suave y luego evoluciona a la vez estatico y turbulento, en oleadas y remolinos, cada vez m‡s profundo, cada vez ms primo a las frequencias bajas. Una œnica pista, tres cuartos de hora. Tan intensos e hipn—ticos que se beben en suspiro.
—GO Mag, Spain
+
This collaboration has also driven the composer of Series to recover and overhaul some archival stuff of a more emotive nature, well documented in the anthology released by Crouton from Milwaukee. Some compositions going back more than ten years ago created with analogic and digital synths, in this occasion structured in an almost dark-ambient gloomy and spherical form.
—Blow Up, Italy
+
the title already gives it away: the cd is based on material from 1991. both pieces, originally created in the beginning of the 90’s (with analogue and digital sythesizers) have been used as a basis for a new composition, which – like richard chartier says in the linernotes- still obliges on the “asthetics” of the originals. the 46 minutes long piece is dark and minimalistic. you really have to turn the volume up to forge ahead/get to the essence. the sounds are slightly noised, the development goes on slowly, gently, but yet Archival 1991 is static at no point. this album isn’t a release for relaxing a moment of being tensed up is always present, even though, due to formal parallelities, this does not lead to defining the music as “classical” dark ambient.
—Equinoxe, Germany
+
I managed to track down a copy of this little beauty late last year and am very pleased to be able to offer it to you now. Coming firmly from Richard Chartier’s darker side, Archival1991 originated after Richard revisited and reinterpreted two compostions from 1991. Sparse, spare aesthetics give this a haunting quality that will leave you suitably dislocated, yet, for me, this is one of his more beautifully desolate works. A sense of timelessness pervades every minute of this work and the intensity of the mechanical drone sound is really rather marvellous. Stark music that’s clearly inspired as much by space and form as music. Really quite stunning and another recommended work from Mr. Chartier.
—Smallfish, UK
