Levels(Inverted)

Levels (Inverted) was commissioned as part of the city wide Found Sound exhibit in Washington, DC. This six-channel site specific sound installation was exhibited October 15-November 19, 2005 at the 1515 Arts Building within the three story concrete stairwell. The sounds utilized are based on site recordings of the space and towering central flourescent lighting fixture itself. Thick white audio wires draped down from the ceiling and small speakers adhered to the glass panelled staircase.

Due to the spiral shape of the staircase and the speakers positioning (pointing towards the center of the space) different levels and interactions of frequencies surfaced within the space as the glass panes acted as conduits for the lower frequency bands.

Although no recording could quite capture the full physical and visual experience of being in the space with its lights and the viewer/listeners own movement choice, this recording is not meant to be a completed “composition” but rather a stereo approximation of an installation environment, suggesting a listeners gradual movement upwards through the space/sound field, albiet a very slowed down one, in order to note more apparently the nature of each level of the installation’s components. This 60 minute journey reflects opening three cycles of the various looped and tuned components. Due to the quiet nature of the piece itself this work is meant for low volume listening.

Levels(Inverted) (59:44)

Richard Chartier’s Levels (Inverted) really is a wonderful piece of work. Coming as part of the limited ‘Editions’ series, each CD is hand numbered and signed and the run is a meagre 250 copies for the world (hence the higher price than the usual Line and 12k releases). I count myself extremely fortunate to have got my grubby hands on this! The work was commisioned as part of 2005’s Found Sound exhibit in Washington (I assume). The sounds are sourced from on-site locations and are deconstructed and manipulated with finesse, passion and a great deal of style. As ever with Chartier’s work, there’s a beautiful coherence to the way he structures and arranges the piece and, although it’s more abstract than, say, Tracing or Archival, there’s a real delicacy and fragility at work here. For those who are fans of his work this is simply a must, particularly in view of its limited nature. Equally, those that enjoy contemporay minimalist music should investigate this aswell. Understated, exquisite… just superb. Highly recommended.
—smallfish.co.uk

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originally conceived for an audio installation in an art building, is a one-hour composition derived from “the sounds emanating from a fluorescent light fixture”. The slow metamorphoses of the crackling, blaring, monochromatic patterns, shifting from one stereo channel to the other, lead to a tumultuous booming soundscape, soon swept by a hurricane of dense aggressive chords that crash into a wall of savage industrial cacophony. By the mid-point, the accumulated tension seems ready to explode: the fireball of pulsations, patterns and drones repeats itself for endless minutes. But then a sideral night descends on the landscape, and mysterious electrical ghosts advance in the dark. A tempest of drilling and lacerating noise evokes a catastrophic ending, destruction and explosion. Levels Inverted is a tour de force of audio montage, proving how meticulous production can breath life into any kind of matter. This is also Chartier’s equivalent of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, a free-form stream of consciousness for the age of machines.
—scaruffi.com