bear ground |cs143

First of all thank you to everyone that wished me a happy birthday either here or elsewhere. As birthdays go I didn’t have a bad one at all. Cheers
So back to listening to music again today after a bit of a palette cleansing weekend. I played a new release this morning by the UK quartet of Matt Milton, David Thomas, Ryan Jewell and Patrick Farmer, playing violin and objects, viola and bamboo, snare drum and voice and drums and objects respectively. The album, released on Creative Sources is called Bear Ground.
Patrick gave me a copy of the release when I spent a little time with him and his delightful other half Sarah up in Glasgow last weekend. Because I had spent a bit of time in their company, and also because Patrick has a forthcoming release on Cathnor I wanted to put a week or so in between him giving me the CD and me listening to it, to at least try and stay somewhat impartial. It is indeed a very nice little CD though, an itchy, scratchy, breathy, crackly little number.
Of the four musicians on the disc I only really know the music of two of them very well, Farmer and Milton. One real joy of the music though is that I cannot tell who is doing what. Although on occasion its easy to tell strings from a drum (and not as often as you might think) I still couldn’t tell you which of the musicians did what. This isn’t a release that projects forth strong musical voices, rather it showcases the ability of four like minds working together towards one common outcome. I’m not really sure how I am meant to classify the music either. It is all acoustic, and yet rarely are the sounds we hear obviously instrumental. In places it is busy, but in others (like during the charged four minute silence that emerges amidst the final twenty-five minute long third track) the music slips into complete inactivity. I am reminded of the music of Jeph Jerman in improvisational mode, all clicks and scratches and dry whispery sounds as if made with all naturally found objects, as Jerman has been known to do. The sleeve imagery only reinforces this feeling, consisting of a series of Patrick’s natural photography, all leaves and wood and feathers.
Bear Ground is a very restrained, gentle, detailed album. It doesn’t shout and scream at you for your attention, and requires a lot of patience to listen to it carefully enough for it not to slip past virtually unnoticed. Taking the time to listen carefully has its rewards though as immersing yourself in this miniscule soundworld is a rewarding experience. Oh and that silence. It just appears with some eleven minutes remaining in the third track and just stays there for four minutes until a faint crackle, like dried leaves blowing on the wind appears. On other releases the silence might have been edited out, or shortened at least, but here it works well where it is, as if the music was just taking a natural rest to catch its breath, and reaffirming the feeling of honesty that Bear Ground gives me. Maybe not one for everyone, but certainly a release I like a lot. Richard Pinnel (The Watchful Ear)

Excellent soft, scratchy improv with tinges of melodicism. The second of three tracks loses its way somewhat, but the other two are models of imaginative concision within a fairly narrow sonic palette. A lot of "sliding" sounds, of objects being stroked across surfaces, very lovely. Good stuff! Brian Olewnick (Just Outside)

Three untitled pieces of object improv from this improvising quartet performed using mostly acoustic sources. Scant information about this one, but I know that these musicians have been playing together for a while. Farmer runs the Compost and Height label which specializes in this kind of improvisation, along with field recordings, processed and not.
Field recordings might be a good referent to these slices of textural sound, as they ebb and flow the way the sounds outside my window do, and surprises pop up just like in "real life". It's difficult to tell just who is making what sound, and even exactly what thing is making them at times. The notes list violin, objects, viola, bamboo, snare drum, voice, breath and drum, but I swear I'm hearing horns or reeds for long stretches of time. The given textures hold one's attention, perhaps because of this "what is it" aspect, but also through well placed transitions into new approaches/sounds. It's quite often on the quiet side, erupting from time to time into scratchy loudness. The CD itself is wrapped in Farmer's beautiful nature photographs, which complement the music nicely and give a referent to those who need one.
But... just what is a bear ground? Jeph Jerman (The Squid's Ear)

Improvisation so quiet and peaceful that it went by almost unnoticed. I’ll need to listen again very attentively. Just to show you, Jewell is credited for breathing! Other instrumentation: violin, viola, snare drum, voice, drum (singular), and objects. Not unpleasant. VERY discreet, but was it holding together or was it only occupying the listening space? More later... François Couture (Monsieur Delire)

Farmer zawiera muzyke (?) zdecydowanie bardziej wymagajaca, hermetyczna niemal, skierowana do sluchaczy, którym nie przeszkadza nieobecnosc melodii, rytmu, harmonii oraz brak odczuwalnych zmian dynamiki. Choc dzwieki wydobyto ze skrzypiec, altówki, werbla, perkusji i rozmaitych przedmiotów - a slychac tez ludzki glos i oddech - to utwory z "Bear Ground" nie wydaja sie byc dzielem czlowieka, lecz brzmia jak sciezka dzwiekowa jesiennej przechadzki po opustoszalym lesie, podczas której mikrofony rejestruja przede wszystkim trzask lamanych galazek i szelest sciólki pod nogami. Pierwszorzedna post-jermanowska improwizacja dla tych, którzy potrafia uslyszec muzyke wszedzie i we wszystkim. Tadeusz Kosiek (Diapazon)

The instrumentation comprises violin, viola, two drums, bamboo, breath, voice and objects. The quartet tries to affirm concepts in the “purely organic” ambit: small noises, minor rustling, whispered crepitations are a constant presence, the quietness of the environment attempting to attribute significance to something that, from the beginning, does not appear that precious. The latter is the major issue with this record for this reviewer: although there are circumstances in which the combination of scraped strings, rubbed skin, barely touched wood and underlying breathing achieves ear-pleasing types of resonance – not overly frequently, should we say – this seems to happen by mere chance, not as a logical consequence of the approach to the improvisation. In essence, despite repeated spins in different settings, I can’t help but perceive this CD as a sheer container of contingent manual activities that almost never manage to reach the status of satisfying music. This would have been acceptable five years ago, maybe; right now, it’s too little to consider Bear Ground worthy of being remembered. Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)

Three untitled pieces of object improv from this improvising quartet performed using mostly acoustic sources. Scant information about this one, but I know that these musicians have been playing together for a while. Farmer runs the Compost and Height label which specializes in this kind of improvisation, along with field recordings, processed and not. Field recordings might be a good referent to these slices of textural sound, as they ebb and flow the way the sounds outside my window do, and surprises pop up just like in "real life". It's difficult to tell just who is making what sound, and even exactly what thing is making them at times. The notes list violin, objects, viola, bamboo, snare drum, voice, breath and drum, but I swear I'm hearing horns or reeds for long stretches of time. The given textures hold one's attention, perhaps because of this "what is it" aspect, but also through well placed transitions into new approaches/sounds. It's quite often on the quiet side, erupting from time to time into scratchy loudness. The CD itself is wrapped in Farmer's beautiful nature photographs, which complement the music nicely and give a referent to those who need one. But... just what is a bear ground? Jeph Jerman