Label: Few Crackles – FC08
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 2025
Genre: Electronic, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Experimental,Noise, Spoken Word, Abstract, Electro Acoustic
Brain-boggling transatlantic correspondence from local legends Sean Canty / Andy Votel and Manc-born, Massachusetts-based artist Rick Myers via Intrepid Marseille-based label Few Crackles, reawakening after that pair of lysergic late-night folk seances from Ssabæ.
Full marks to Few Crackles for not taking the path of least resistance and presenting us with something undeniably less-easy to digest that their last two fairy tales, but ultimately a serving that will do the world us good in the long run. The foundation of these recordings began with the striking cover image of a high-jumper in a disused municipal building, which was responded to with audio recordings of the sound and space itself, together with Myers’ spoken text refracted through an abandoned piano. Clever. From here, the resulting audio was shuffled back and force between the trio, each time round suffering new stages of augmentation, decomposition and dismemberment. The end result could be more about the journey itself, offering us a glimpse into the inner sonic properties of the source material and asking the question of how did we even get here? It’s a heavily focused yet expansive sound palette, a precise tapestry of microphone scraps, pulled strings, lonely piano clangs all glazed in tape saturation and subjected to endless Lucier-esque ‘I’m Sitting In A Room’ degradation. Without a doubt, this isn’t the sorta stuff you’re putting up on liven up any small gathering, local bar, BBQ, but anyone raised on a diet of the INA-GRM’s OGs Jean Schwarz / Luc Ferrari / Henri / Parmegiani, Romanian electroacoustic wizard Octavian Nemescu or Dieter Roth’s private label, this could be the protein shake your body has been craving. (Mint / New)
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Human Engineering LP started with a performance photograph, taken during the first stages of the global Coronavirus lockdown in a disused municipal building in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Taking the form of a proficient and emphatic high-jump, with a recording of its sound, and a spoken text, amplified through the strings of an abandoned piano occupying the same space. The resulting photographic and sound documents formed the basis of an audio correspondence between Rick Myers, Andy Votel and Sean Canty which was recorded and arranged between Easthampton Mass. and Manchester from 2018 to 2024.
Tracklist
A1. Boundary simulation
A2. Impulse
A3. Limb movement
B1. Line inclination
B2. Stimuli
