Chessa [12k, 2004]
Dan Abrams has two previous releases on 12k and a couple on Mille Plateaux. Chessa is closer in spirit to the MP releases than the warm, organic melodicism of either Frame or Optimal.lp. While a similar aural strategy is deployed, Chelsea has several tracks which are far less linear than his previous work. "Ash" opens the album with a warm and gradual swell, as the soundfiled begins to open more minute frequencies over several minutes. This track sounds very much like the laptop equivalent of an orchestra practising Debussy in a field full of insect life. "Marche" attempts a sound that is very akin to the Brian Eno / Harold Budd collaborations of the early 1980s.
Most of the pieces are compositionally dependent on variations of drone, but several tracks stand out for their textural beauty and complexity. "Melt" has a vague eastern feel, with a "plucked" melodic line and a Phil Niblock-esque slow-transformation-through-stasis sound field. The liquid yet viscous, almost rubbery, bassline of "Logical" is simultaneously a playfull engagement with a future-pop sensibility as well as a nostalgic harkening to the sounds of 1970s analog futurism. Abrams seems to operate best in such hybrid spaces, where reference and reflection coexist and provide entry to new aesthetic experiences. The album's closer "Scrapbook" is the only track on Chessa which foregrounds a more or less traditional rhythmic pattern, as acoustic guitar, violins, and synth drone all mesh nicely over a slightly distorted synth beat. This remnant of the "clicks n cuts" sound made infamous in 2000 provokes an ironic comment from Abrams: is all musical experience insufferably linked to listener nostalgia? At the very least, a possible answer can be found in the opportunities for personal reflection and sensory immersion that Chessa provides.
MP3: Shuttle358 - Scrapbook
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