Always welcome here is Philip Perkins, the electronic composer veteran from San Francisco active since 1979 and whom we interviewed in 2017 for our 24th issue. His early releases on his own Fun Music label were bold experiments using tapes, field recordings, and very unusual but subtle electronic sounds.
His methods may have moved on since then, including the use of Emulator synths and digital tools, but his uncanny imagination and gift for economical arrangement remains intact. His new release Flare (ARTIFACT RECORDINGS #3014) – subtitled “Solo live performances 2019-22” – offers a dozen beautiful tracks quite short in length around the three-four minute region, yet each one manages to suggest a story, a vignette, a landscape, a city scene, a dream…every time using delicate strokes and deft gestures like a miniature watercolour painter. We’re somewhat reminded of the recent quartet of releases by Allen Ravenstine on Waveshaper Media that came out in 2021 – there’s the same attention to detail, the compactness, the genius for evoking a mood or scene, and above all the abounding sense of mystery. Philip Perkins is a man who is always intrigued and amazed by life, never bored by what he sees outside his window and always encountering a new adventure when he sets foot out on the streets. Partly this reflects, one could say, on his commercial career as a recordist and sound designer for cinema, TV, and dance projects, but when left alone to make his own personal art statements, we get rewarding and enjoyable results like Flare.
Many of these ambiguous and dream-like pieces come within an ace of sounding like a half-completed tune by The Residents, which is fitting since Perkins was a member of their touring band since 1981 and The Mole Show (and may have made other stage / studio appearances for all we know), and with peculiar episodes here like ‘Berta’ or ‘Someany’, we’re waiting for Homer Flynn’s voice to appear at any minute with a perplexing anecdote growled in his typical 13-syllable manner, or Hardy Fox to shape these cloudy billows into something resembling a warped pop song. Mentioned on the cover are the names of some of Perkins’ collaborators, for instance Scott Fraser (one half of The Bifurcators), Tim Perkis from the League of Automatic Music Composers (who played on Perkins’ radio pieces), and the jazz saxophonist Phillip Greenlief. Not sure if any of them appear on the recordings here, but they are listed under the heading “Factors”. Excellent release – following on from the mosaic “noise construction” technique of 2019’s Yeah Machine, this set of 12 instrumentals has a slightly rougher sound and vaguely improvisatory feel, showing Perkins’ skill for live performance. From 19 December 2022.