DANNY CLAY & GREG GORLEN - BRITTLE
canti magnetici 2016, edition of 80
"A delicate requiem for tape loops and synth. A charming exploration in the world of disintegrated sounds. Danny Clay is a composer and sound artist from Ohio, now based in San Francisco, drawing upon elements of American folklore, genealogy, art education, children's theater, improvisation, digital media and everything in between to make music. Greg Gorlen is an experimental musician living in San Francisco. He produces music and noise using junk, found tapes, and home made cassette loops. He runs the cassette label Turmeric Magnitudes and writing about music for demagnetization blog." - CANTI MAGNETICI
BRITTLE is the third CLAY & GORLEN collaborative work to be featured here, following MMM SOUND's LIGHT THROUGH LEAVES (REC #10) and GORLEN's imprint CASCADING FRAGMENTS' CONCH (REC #43) --both are excellent, if not essential for any likeminded follower of this two bit blog (thinkin on that twist of an old phrase, kinda funny how it could have a different pun-like technological meaning and yet still convey the exact same sentiment)-- anyway -- i'm a huge fan of both artists and not just particularly when they get together - GORLEN's PASSING CLOUDS (also REC #43) is a stone cold masterpiece and CLAY's magnum opus is his split with WILLAMETTE's JOSEPH EDWARD YONKER entitled JOHN WAYNE DEATH SCENE, which is still my favorite tape of 2015
BRITTLE is way up there alongside PASSING CLOUDS and JWDS - it has more of the former in it than the latter so i don't know if that means GORLEN maybe took more of a leading role here, but i think CLAY's contribution is more subtle, more contextual than their previous collabs - or maybe they crossed some threshold, a complete mind meld - sonically the same rules apply - wistful synth loops on warbly damaged tape - gorgeous and heartrending like BASINSKI disintegrating BLADE RUNNER and KLAUS SCHULZE's IRRLICHT, progressing in dissonance and distress like a warped worn out copy of ENO's DISCREET MUSIC -- this popped up like a week ago (or at least that's when i first saw it) and the street date is today, so i'm kinda surprised that it is already sold out at the source - hopefully one the usual suspect distros or the artists themselves will have some available soon enough because this is a top ten tape of 2016
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTES
