a colossal yet minimalist soundscape… This is headphone music — true sound-art whose fascinating creative process is too detailed for this tiny column.
—The Washington Post, US
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Built Through, … from Robert Curgenven and Richard Chartier on LINE, a sound platform actually curated by Chartier himself, is, simply described, analogue and digital noise given feeling. Such a collaboration was always going to create evocative ripples, but the understated waves that this release creates in the listener is a sign that the current ‘microsound’ movement cannot be dismissed as simply avant- noise, but is in fact potentially the next evolutionary stage for those striving for more from their music – be that emotion, connection to the artist, or merely a more challenging listening.
Coming in at just under an hour long, this record is one that must be listened to alone, or with a loved one, and loud. The reason for the volume is to catch every nuance in the understated music, and to create the sense of intimacy that both artists usually only evoke in their sound installations, cradled in the calm, reflective world of the gallery or artist’s space – perhaps alluded to in the clean, slow fade from white to grey of the album’s cover.
‘Invariance Strata’, the first of the four recordings, is actually a re-work of one of Chartier’s compositions from 2002, layered and processed through three improvisations for a 16 foot manual pipe organ. Perhaps the most akin to the current ‘ambient’ scene in its sounds, this colossus of a track presents the listener with the doorway to Curgenven and Chartier’s soundscapes and takes on each other’s work. Accompanined only by the hiss and crackle, this is a track that could have been created by Shinobu Nemoto (AKA ‘Summons of Shining Ruins’), if he swapped his signature guitar for organ.
Second track ‘Displacement’ begins to show the nature of the pair’s collaboration proper. Consisting of Curgenven’s field recordings, which have been reworked once by Chartier and then again by Curgenven via an improvisation of turntables, linear series dubplate and a pair of wine glasses, one is treated to the slow digitalisation of organic structures, which are then themselves broken-down into raw static, and minimal, analogue tones.
‘Built Through Both Sides’, arguably the summit of the release overall, features much of the same instrumentation as ‘Displacement’, yet with added guitar feedback, creating an image analogous with the progressive nature of the record – that of the aftermath of a noise concert in its current, recognised form – everything that comes after which being uncharted musical territory. This notion is further reinforced by the labyrinthian “matrix” of pieces on nine turntables that is revealed in final track ‘Aquisition Eviction’. Although the sounds themselves aren’t complex, that the track comes from the mashing up of nine individual pieces could be said to be an image of future music’s taking and reworking of existing material, recreating past compositions anew.
As previously stated, this album is one wherein less is more, and static takes on an emotional significance – a feat that few could achieve. Worth many an intimate listen.
—futuresequence.com
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a visceral, engrossing exploration of “acoustic architecture” schemed by prolific sound artist, collaborator, and Line Records boss, Richard Chartier (US), and sound artist/composer Robert Curgenven (AU/UK). As inferred by the title, Built Through is focussed upon the aesthetics of space and features four pieces stemming from original source material (field recordings, older compositions) which was reprocessed/reworked by the two artists in order to further investigate theirs and our perceptions of the material’s internal and extrenal spatial properties. Using seamlessly integrated analogue and digital techniques they create vividly hollowed-out spaces, stratified arenas of dense, vibrating sub-harmonic foundations suffused with filigree surface textures – from traces of distant traffic to needling, micro-rhythmic disturbances – defining the approach, the entry, the walk-through, the departure. No doubt, that all sounds rather academic, and taken as such, it is. But from a purely aesthetic point of view, their sounds are of an incredibly fine calibre and arranged with such a sense of unfolding, albeit abstract, narrative, that we’re sucked in to near-extreme levels of concentration to focus on the slightest fluctuation, and sent reeling by the presence of such overpoweringly physical bass frequencies. Ultimately, what they’re doing is a super advanced version of what’s happening in the mind/computer/bedroom of nearly every young electronic producer looking to get the most space out of their “mixdown”, and for any followers of current electronic music, design, minimalism, this is a deeply refined and engaging recommendation.
—boomkat.com
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One phrase really jumps out at me when reading over the information included with the new album from Richard Chartier & Robert Curgenven: Acoustic Architecture. That is exactly what Built Through is. Chartier and Curgenven use a multitude of processes to dissect and digest a wide range of sound. At times, they’re taking apart past compositions of Chartier’s and processing them ‘through three improvisations for a 16 foot single manual pipe organ.’ The results speak for themselves, adding new space and depth to any already impressive piece. Field recordings of Curgenven’s are reworked by Chartier, contrasting digital sounds and processes with something that feels entirely organic. This is sonic engineering at its finest. There’s a real delicacy to each of the four pieces on Built Through, and with each successive listen a new layer is revealed.
—experimedia.net
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Built Through is an aesthetic album that consists of four tranquil compositions. Almost one hour of sensibly developing sounding trajectories will guide the listener through latent and flowing ambience. The Chartier’s idealogy about the relationship between sound, silence, focus and the act of listening in this masterwork is completely implemented. Accurate micro processing gently controls the static atmospheres cluster and doesn’t let them to get dull. Subtle oscillating extremely low tones and stimulating dense noise in the lower background expand the depth and listening range of the compositions. By carefully including skilfully shaped sine wave layers a sublime musical architecture is being extracted. Thoughtful and frequent resonanse and volume level imbalance between sounds enrich the music color palette. Variable sound devices effects and live-recordings in the upper layer convert entirety into a valuable model how the intellectual music should be fully designed.
Built Through is like a picturesque galaxy’s collision somewhere in a distant corner of the universe; it collides so gracefully that creates more bigger and richer cosmic infrastructure.
—secretthirteen.org
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God, I’m sat here in the baking heat in my room listening to this tranquil baby. The second track is particularly relevant to my near-immolated state being the sound of electronic crickets-on-crack chirruping excitedly, undercut with a deep gradually escalating tonal throb reminiscent of Eleh. Oh, and then the crickets fade into loads of delicious digital scrunch and static. Intense and involving.
I think there’s some nice vinyl crackles on the next piece with the static sound of bristling bushes in the night breeze whilst ambling through deserted park at dusk. There’s always the cerebral shimmering android lullaby tine pulsing underneath to keep you company at this ponderous juncture in your life. I’m maybe not academically clever enough to truly understand the conceptual nature of this CD but I love Chartier’s stuff, I find him a really absorbing listen and Curgenven, who I’m less familiar with is obviously bringing the best out of him on this four track collaboration
—normanrecords.com
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Built Through feels like a further installment of the earlier Oltre‘s austere, challenging beauty…
—earslend.blogspot.co.uk
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… It all remains steadily quiet, inoffensively restrained and yet beautifully fragile. If the general structure of the pieces is droning, the layers are gauzily thin, wispy transparent sheets allowing even the slightest sounds to peer through.
—The Wire, UK
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Line est propulsé sur les radars à l’orée du XXIe siècle sous l’impulsion de l’artiste sonore Richard Chartier. La première référence du label estSeries, un disque où l’on peut déjà entendre l’electronica millimétrique et minimale de l’Américain se frayer un chemin vers le futur de la musique. Tel un véritable curateur, Chartier n’a eu de cesse depuis de documenter le dialogue entre la musique électronique et l’art contemporain, mais surtout de défricher les territoires de ce qu’on pourrait appeler l’extrême-minimal, le minimalisme du confin du spectre sonore, et ce, en publiant outre ses propres travaux, l’œuvre de compositeurs majeurs dans le domaine (Bernhard Günter, Asmus Tietchens, Steve Roden…etc). En 2012, Richard Chartier apporte la preuve que son label est toujours le poste avancé de cet extrême minimalisme sur la mappemonde des musiques contemporaines. On pourra écouter sa dernière pièce solo pour s’en convaincre (Transparency (Performance)). On pourra aussi se réjouir de la récente parution de Built Through qu’il produit en collaboration avecRobert Curgenven. Souvenez-vous, on avait découvert cet Australien d’origine en 2010 sur Line, grâce à Oltre, un recueil de recombinaisons acoustiques/numériques de haute tenue. Richard Chartier ne pouvait rêver d’un meilleur partenaire de jeu et nous, d’une affiche aussi alléchante.
Built Through décline sur quatre titres, quatre pièces conçues en laboratoire, les manipulations sonores déjà entendues sur Oltre. Les deux albums ont en commun d’être le lieu d’un achoppement permanent entre différentes sources sonores parfois antagonistes (ici, compositions antérieures de Richard Chartier, field recordings, instruments conventionnels et objets détournés). Certaines sont de nature analogique, d’autres numériques mais cette opposition n’est jamais figée. Au contraire, la limite entre l’analogique et le digital, la réalité et sa synthèse, est extrêmement poreuse et le doute est permanent quant à l’origine et la véritable nature des sons que l’on perçoit alors qu’ils passent sans cesse par une série de métamorphose. Au fond, cette explosion du vocabulaire de la musique contemporaine importe peu. Ce n’est qu’un moyen pour Chartier et Curgenven de traiter le matériau sonore, de contrarier sa destination et d’en bouleverser les perspectives à l’infini. Les deux hommes alignent donc drones souterrains, field recordings en friche, murs de basses, et écrans de parasites pour accoucher d’un univers artificiel fourmillant de courbes et de sinusoïdes. Un univers de données à jamais castré, à jamais séparé de la réalité : une surface fluide et réfléchissante où l’on est libre de se perdre comme dans un labyrinthe. Définitivement, faire dialoguer l’analogique et le digital n’est pas une fin en soi pour Robert Curgenven et Richard Chartier, et pourtant ils opèrent en la matière avec une précision chirurgicale et un sens de la composition assez impressionnant. Si les vingt-cinq minutes de Built Through Both Side ne révèlent pas leur richesse immédiatement, une pièce comme Invariance Strata sonne avec plus d’évidence. Et pour cause, elle condense d’entrée de jeu tout ce qui fait la force de leur entreprise, sa pure transparence et son attirante complexité.
Built Through combine constamment l’allégresse de la construction architecturale et la séduction vénéneuse du design sonore. Parler de textures ou de géométrie devient une hérésie. La notion même de structure est renversée sur elle-même : l’espace physique ou sonore devient mental et semble même disparaître dans la beauté immaculée de l’abstraction digitale. En fait, Built Through se tient là où le paysage sous toutes ses formes devient information pure, où sa matérialité concrète et observable, son imperfection congénitale, s’exorcise dans le virtuel. Alors, cette musique-objet qui déjoue constamment la matière sonore au gré de ses recombinaisons successives finit paradoxalement par dévoiler, à travers la virtuosité de son exécution, tout le romantisme de son intention.
—dmute.net
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Oscillating at the border of silence this musical experiment allows us to eavesdropping of the air. The air vibrates, fills the space for flying insects and our breaths. The air reflects from the elements. Various objects which have contact with the air can make noise. This air streams into the tracheas, larynxes of the instruments that we can later hear.
—eyebient.tumblr.com
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Par le biais de Built Through, Richard Chartier me présente l’Australien Robert Curvengen. L’homme est charismatique et son travail (beaucoup de field recordings à son actif) est sans nul doute à découvrir. Built Through, c’est de la musique. C’est aussi de l’architecture – le rapprochement est souvent galvaudé mais ici je crois que musique et architecture vont vraiment de pair. Un long silence blanc parcourt d’abord la pièce, puis c’est le tour d’une electronica sensible (qui peut prendre différentes apparences : un drone à deux têtes, des sons cachés en coussins d’air, des field recordings qui se fondent dans les paysages de Chartier). Built Through, c’est de la musique, de l’architecture, du paysage, et on s’y sent bien.
—le son du grisli, FR
