One of the most remarkable artists of this moment is Richard Chartier. Therefore we would like to give an idea of what this Washington D.C.-based artist has released previously and we would also like to imply that Richard Chartier has researched different musical directions, without giving up his own style. Direct.incidental consequential is a reissue, that had been out of print since 1999. Richard Chartier was not satisfied with what the studio engineer did to the original recordings, so he decided to reconstruct the whole CD to match his original designs. The result is dark and robust, slightly reminding of Thomas Koner and the latest work of Asmus Tietchens. Dense organic soundscapes have been combined with occasional static crisps and crinkling sprinkles. As opposed to most industrial soundcape releases, Richard Chartier still includes lots of refinement and subtleness in his concept. Direct.incidental consequential makes you feel at the bottom of a deep ocean, where life is relaxed, beautiful and intelligent.
—Phosphur Magazine, Germany
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Richard Chartier is renowned for his ultra-ultra minimal compositions, both musical and visual. He is also the founder of the noted LINE label, along with his own 3Particles label. He is an extremely prolific artist who has released many albums in the last five plus years, has participated in numerous sound installations all over the world, and has appeared on several dozen compilations. One of the problems with following the career of such a prolific artist is that it is nearly impossible to keep up. This is particularly true of Chartier, since his work is so subtle that it often takes a long time to fully appreciate, even understand it. Hence, I’m only now appreciating his Of Surfaces, a work that I first heard about eighteen months ago; since then, he’s released about seven new works, either as solo projects or in collaboration with others. I’m sure I could listen to Chartier’s music for the rest of my life and never get to the bottom of it. However, I recently took a keen listen to two Chartier works from his own 3Particle label:Direct.Incidental.Consequential and Other Materials.
Direct.Incidental.Consequential is a re-release and reworking of one of Chartier’s first efforts. It was originally released on Intransitive Records back in 1998, and it has been out of print since 1999. Chartier’s desire to re-release this work is partly a desire to make this music heard again and, perhaps more importantly, to fix what he perceived to be an error in the mastering process of the original. As he mentions in the liner notes, the engineer who first mastered the work was not really knowledgeable about the kind of delicate, if odd, sound and noise collages Chartier created on this work. Hence, the resultant master significantly altered the sounds from Chartier’s originals. Chartier, in 2002, went back to his original files and reshaped the songs to match, as closely as he could, his original designs. Now, I haven’t heard the first version of this work, so I can only comment on Chartier’s reworking. What strikes me about Direct.Incidental is how different this is from Chartier’s more recent work. If you try to listen to Of Surfaces at normal volume, you will not hear anything; the stereo needs to be turned up full blast to fully appreciate the full power of that work. That’s not the case with Direct.Incidental.Consequential. The music is generally right in your face, hovering over you like an alien spaceship on an X-Files episode. Songs waver from crinkling sprinkles of static to ominous, churning sine wave patterns. It’s not as powerful or as eloquent as Of Surfaces , but it has a brutal power and it gives me a better sense of where Chartier’s work was when he first started releasing records: namely, louder, sparser, and more elemental than I realized.
Like Direct.Incidental.Consequential, Other Materials is composed of earlier works, some previously released on various compilations (like 12k/Line’s Between Two Points and Mille Plateaux’s Clicks & Cuts 2) and some previously unreleased. The thirteen tracks here are diverse, to say the least, from the shimmering abstraction of the first track, “8 Tools,” to the near-silence of “010101.” If Direct offered a gimpse of Chartier’s early style (albeit one recreated by the Chartier of today), then Other Materials could be seen as a glimpse into his “maturation” as an artist. The track listing here is chronological, from 1999 to 2001 (though a few tracks weren’t released until 2002), so I expected to hear music that would gradually disappear, with each song being more minimal than the last, until, by “010101,” all you get is music that is only audible at full volume. Well, that’s not what I hear here. The third track, “3Particles” from 1999, is about as minimal as you can possibly expect music to be. The entire track, all five minutes, is silent save three tiny particles of static that bleep in and out of existence at various points along the way. Tracks from later years, meanwhile, remind me a lot of the tracks from 1998’s Direct.Incidentalin their use of fluttering noise wandering around in my ears and the prominent use of long, dirigible tones that sweep over and envelop every other sound. Other Materials demonstrates to me that Chartier’s “development” as an artist has nothing to do with volume and everything to do with an increased appreciation for and fascination with sound and the manipulation of sound.
Together, these two works are not as essential as Chartier’s Line releases or his wonderful collaboration with Noisei Sakata, 0/R. They are, however, an excellent glimpse into the early work of an artist who seems only to be hitting his stride right now, and who will no doubt be a key force in the electronic music world for years to come.
—Stylus Magazine, US
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REVIEWS OF ORIGINAL EDITION:
… impossibly extreme tonal stuttering that can only really be fully appreciated on a good set of headphones. Considerably more minimal than Panasonic/Ryoji Ikeda et al, it has the heavy malevolent air of late night wiretapping.
—The Wire, UK
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…a remarkable album that seems to be a soundtrack to a wall-socket, or the emissions and discharges from some abandoned powerhouse. You are unlikely to hear an album of this genre that is as consistent, mature, and totally immersive.
—Ambience Magazine, Australia
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…reminds me of Sahko’s first output. Very minimal electronic noise, at first to hard to get your ears on, which desperately seek for structure. Harsh bleeps and ultra deep basses flow around, strawling around in the deeper insides of sound. A deep album, which will please lovers of Pole, Monolake and Fatcat’s more minimalistic output.
—Forcefield, The Netherlands
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… ascetic pieces which are demanding as the most arcane free improvisations. resolutely abstract, the album is often beautiful but also terrifyingly bleak. only on ‘slow end’ does the music start to radiate any warmth, but i find myself returning to it again and again.
—Resonance Magazine, UK
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Ikeda…Guenter…Meelkop…Rehberg. Chartier takes inspiration from these people…but adds his own voice, one that is certainly throughout more varied in the sounds and compositions. A nice cross-over between anything on Trente Oiseaux and Mego…
—Vital Weekly, The Netherlands
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… focuses on on minimal sonic drones, low frequencies and their manipulation through filtration. This CD contains thousands of random bleeps and bloops and other sounds, as well as layers of fuzzy digital distortion. There is no structure here, no rhythm whatsoever. direct.incidental.consequential is as ominous and intense as possible. It more abstract than Oval, to make one connection. That being said, it’s quite refreshing to hear new and original experimental music.
—Frequency Magazine, Canada
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…the soundtrack to the power outlets the computers are plugged into. …hums, drones and occasional blips and scrapes create the kind of fragile soundscape.. it definitely fits the into the “immersive experience” genre if one exists. Chartier has created an aural experience that is almost physically draining.
—Drawer B, US
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much of this disc inhabits the extremes of the audible frequency spectrum… often not heard as much as they are felt… music with a real, physical presence, a presence that cannot be ignored, even if it cannot always be heard.
—Aegri Somnia Vana Magazine, US
