Visiting an installation directly is obviously an entirely different experience than merely listening to its soundtrack, due to the evident lack of a multi-sensorial impact that can’t be replicated at home and, especially in this circumstance, the extreme difficulty of finding a domestic environment quiet enough for the propagations to diffuse correctly and reveal their intrinsic character. This is a fundamental requirement in Richard Chartier’s music.
As tranquil as the place where I live may be, the reproduction level needed for actually understanding what goes on in Untitled (Angle.1) – the first collaboration of Chartier with visual artist Linn Meyers, whose implementation can be studied here- had to be set at about half of my amplifier’s power, otherwise many of the sounds present in the piece would disappear in the surrounding ambiance. The disc can reach barely audible levels, over-acute filaments willing to vanish amidst the evening crickets, or remaining at such a degree of scarce perceptibility that recognizing what was recorded sound or tinnitus-like inner-ear frequencies became increasingly hard. We’re talking near-subliminal. But after setting the volume at around 12 o’clock the richness is indeed there for us to be conquered by, a purifying blend of electronic light particles dancing in the air, pallid discharges of subtly echoing electronics and unvarying currents of gaseous exhalations tending to the mysterious side of the sonic spectrum. It doesn’t change too much from this basic recipe, yet the 36-minute mark is reached in a breeze and a new spin becomes an instant must.
At the risk of repeating myself, those who reside in a noisy environment will get better results using isolating headphones – which, in any case, is not exactly the most plausible method for appreciating Chartier’s nerve-calming designs. It’s like watching a firefly in a can instead of marveling at its glowing radiance in the nocturnal countryside.
—massimo ricci, bagatellen
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Pay no attention to Chartier´s instructions that “this work is intended for quiet amplification”. At low levels, it is entirely inaudible, leaving me to check if the CD was actually playing. But when turned up and/or with headphones, it yields extraordinary results. A soundtrack to a suitably minimlal installation of Linn Meyer´s razor-thin line drawings that resemble topographic maps, Untitled (Angle.1) whispers its low-impact dub abross a soft hush of denuded white noise. Chartier deftly overlaps his aerated hummings whith sympathetic tones to produce a slow-moving yet very impressive harmonic grounding structure. Upon this stoic undulation, he flashes self-replicating splutters of digital ephemera – a flange here, a timestretched blur there – harking back to late period :zoviet*france:.
—The Wire, UK
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“Quiet, quiet, don’t breathe! I’ve started disc by Richard Chartier” – such words one can say listening in a company of people to one of the albums of this American. If you don’t get rid of outside sounds it can be so that you just don’t hear the music. That is the peculiarity of Chartier – work on the merge of audibility, very often it seems that he rules not sound but silence with the help of sounds, he modifies and transforms natural silence, paints it with different colors and makes different forms. The new album of this unique sound artist was released in May 2009 on the Austrian label Non Visual Objects and represents stereo composition based on joint project Untitled by Chartier and Linn Meyers who worked with visual images. The centre of this installation were two big walls making an angle, their surfaces were skillfully got up by vortexes of thin, pale lines. Under the surface were hidden 8 loudspeakers producing sound loops. One can imagine that in this musical release those walls’ cover is identically with formed cardboard envelope covering the compact disc. Having waited for several minutes after the start you can hear the first fragile sound trickles, like the thinnest cobweb thread. Further there will be more such threads – they will form layers one over the next one, cross and disappear for some time. Each thread with its spectral structure and picture of amplitude change. Drones, rippling, squeak splashes… I imagine some moments as shy, uncertain communication with silence – it’s specialty style of Richard Chartier which constantly surprises me, and Untitled (angle.1) is a perfect continuation of his interesting creativity.
—soundproector.com
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This new project by Richard Chartier stems from a collaboration with visual artist Linn Meyers. Chartier is an electronic composer engaged in a serious minimalist brand of reductionism. InUntitled (Angle.1), the author carefully brings about the co-penetration of optical and sound models, a juxtaposition of the organic and the digital in a unified sensory space. An angle between two walls about five meters long and half as tall defines a space both abstract and physical, a sound room which mixes frequencies and formal tensions, through projection lines drawn directly on the flat surface of the two backgrounds, while eight audio transducers are attached directly on the back of the panels. One moves—in short—on a wave of subtle perceptions, microsounds with delicate granular envelopes blurred in passages characterized by a consistently fascinating audio quality, rarefied and rigorous. Almost indistinguishable drones, synthetic squeaks that give life to suggestive similarities, echoes and reverberations and spectral structures all converge—forcing audience members into a highly sensitive state, with the capacity to perceive the slightest impulse.
—neural.it
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Untitled (Angle. 1) (NVO 018) bietet die Stereoversion des Soundtracks, mit dem RICHARD CHARTIER in der Art Gallery der University of Maryland ein Kunstwerk von Linn Meyers beschallte, genauer, ‚hörbar‘ machte, zumindest mit akustischem Mehrwert anreicherte. Meyers Exponat besteht aus zwei v-förmig gestellten Wänden von je 15 x 8 Fuß, die sie mit feinen braunen Linien wie mit parallelen Höhenlinien überzog. Diese sublimen Isohypsen formen eine imaginäre Wüstenlandschaft, fluss- und ortlos, einen fein gerippelten Ozean aus Sand. In diesem anachoretischen Winkel, nur fein flirrende Mantras als Meditationsfokus vor Augen, unterstützt Chartiers Mikroelektronik mit feinem Zirpen, das sporadisch inmitten langer stiller Passagen verhallt, und mit feinen Dröhnspuren eventuelle Anwandlungen von Askese und Entschlackung. Manchen vermittelt er vielleicht sogar einen Beigeschmack von Honig und Heuschrecken auf die sandigen Lippen. Nächste Stufe – Samadhi-Tank.
—Bad Alchemy, DE
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Here I am, five in the morning, comfortably seated, and ready to open up to this new record by Richard Charter. I know the man’s work, I know that his sound art is fine, thin, and fragile if you can’t devote all your attention to it. So I waited for an occasion like this: fresh out of bed, rested, nothing else to do, as the rest of the household is sleeping soundly, than to sit down, put the headphones on, and dive in. And a nice dive it is. Untitled (Angle 1) is a stereo composition based on an eight-channel installation that could generate eight hours of music (before the various loops would fall in sync again). The installation was a collaboration with visual artist Linn Meyers, whose pencil drawings (they look like tightly-grouped isobar lines) ornamented two walls forming a chevron (the sleeve shows details of her work). Musically, the piece consists of an assemblage of whispering drones, white noise, delicate frequencies, and ephemereal events that leave traces on the deeply-etched sonic surface. It is a very fine piece, contemplative, less austere than some of Chartier’s recent works, and at 35 minutes it doesn’t overcome its welcome. Bravo.
—francois couture, Monsieur Delire
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C’est pour une installation (non intitulée) de l’artiste Linn Meyers que Richard Chartier composa cette pièce d’un peu plus de 36 minutes (non intitulée non plus). Afin d’expliquer la précision entre paranthèses ((angle.1)), voici à quoi ressembe l’œuvre. Sous cet angle, Richard Chartier trouve le prétexte à poursuivre son questionnement de la stéréo et calque ses lignes électroniques sur celles d’encre que l’on pouvait voir sur les murs. En conséquence, deux œuvres s’associent et entremelent leurs lacets (ceux de Chartier imbriquant déjà un larsen, une couche sonore horizontale, et des chants de faux criquets). Le disque en ressort diaphane mais impressionnant par la façon qu’il a d’apposer côte à côte des moments de silence (le blanc des murs de Meyers) et des mouvements sonores tout en discrétion. La vérité n’est pas ailleurs que dans cette découverte: le visuel peut s’entendre.
—pierre cécile, le son du grisli
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Le strutture in microsuoni abili a comunicare con il silenzio le abbiamo imparate ed amate con Richard Chartier, per intenderci quelle iniziate con Series (Line,2000), rinnovate con Set Or Performance (Line,2004) ed a oggi compiute con indubbia poetica.
Un’arte coltivata da anni, tra devoto riduzionismo ed esperienza fisica del suono, espressioni predominanti anche in quest’ultimo Untitled (angle.1), progetto congiunto con l’artista visuale Linn Meyers. La collaborazione si basa su un’installazione (presentata presso la Art Gallery dell’Università di Maryland nel marzo di quest’anno) estesa per otto canali, tracce d’inchiostro e due pareti e sull’interazione (resa possibile grazie ad alcuni trasduttori audio applicati direttamente sulla superficie) tra la componente acustica e quella visuale, elementi che qui lavorano per sinestesia.
Ai confini come sempre le frequenze rasenti lo zero di acustici e digitali micro-elementi (svincolati, ingranditi e poi negati), un linguaggio questo altamente evocativo che conserva sempre lo stretto legame con spazio, tempo e forma.
A dar prova di una congiunta affinità tra suono ed immagine è la superficie sonora, che dialoga con il tratto e prende il posto alla grafite con droni e riverberi sottili di rumore bianco.
L’insieme è espresso come nelle più eccellenti opere di shodo e qui, a tenere la penna, è uno dei migliori maestri.
—sentireascoltare.com
