::: eyes like a fish :::

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::: murmer ::: eyes like a fish :::

::: s’agita recordings ::: cdr ::: 2002 ::: download :::

this piece was completed in early 2000 using field recordings taken throughout the previous year, including london’s millennium new year’s eve celebrations. its composition came about with the desire to do all of the things that i hadn’t previously allowed myself to do: allow sounds to be recognizable and retain their context, use musical instruments, allow a greater harshness; i wanted to break the guidelines i’d set for myself in recording earlier pieces. the decontextualization of sound especially had been very important to me, in order to allow a truly unbiased hearing, but here i found myself with source recordings that wouldn’t hide their origins: fireworks, water, insects, bells; their voices dictated the structure of this composition.

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::: liner notes :::

  • part 1:1 (07:48): beer cooler
  • part 1:2 (05:12): new year’s eve celebration, 2000
  • part 1:3 (10:35): escalator at pimlico tube station, tin whistle, sugar bowl, power lines, airplane (from within)
  • part 2:1 (03:21): skipping hardcore cd, wasp
  • part 2:2 (05:11): a walk in chaillac, france, and it’s insects
  • part 2:3 (12:38): stream and church bells in zennor, cornwall

composed, with source taken throughout 1999, in january 2000
using minidisc, stereo microphone, analogue 4-track, reverb, distortion and delay

::: reviews :::

.Murmer aka Patrick McGinley is a guy with a microphone, walking around the house or outside to tape the fascinations of everyday life. After he stucks his sounds on his four track and plays around with reverb, delay and distortion. For instance for this release he taped a beer cooler, fireworks, escalator, skipping hardcore CD, wasp, insects, airplanes and church bells, to name but a few of his sources. This release reflects some of his early works, dating from 1999 and 2000. His treatments to his source material are mild. The fireworks on new years eve are still fireworks. For the more abstract sounding material it’s hard to figure what it is, but it’s good to see it listed on the cover (and maybe in some cases even inspiring to get your own microphone hooked up). Some of the ideas on this release are a bit naive (like recording fireworks) or even out of place, such as fourth track with it’s skipping hardcore cd. But the third piece, with it’s lengthty combination of various sound sources in a darker moody atmosphere makes it up a lot, I think. .Murmer’s recent works may sound more refined, but this early work is maybe because of it’s raw and pure nature, also a good start.
:::frans de waard ::: vital weekly #358 :::
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