Fletina sent us a copy of Causal, their very first EP release from 2023, released in a tiny edition of 15 CDRs by the Brooklyn label Here Free Press. Fletina is Scottish, a sound artist working with very restrained forms of field recordings – including subtle open-air atmospheres, room tone, and the general murmur of what I assume is a largely pastoral environment, although machinery does sometimes feature in their other records. I’m not sure if they actually “play” anything, and while an interest in found objects is expressed, it might be that these objects don’t feature on a table top of percussion devices but are rather cherished for their sonic properties, as a sculptor would cherish a stump of wood.
Causal is so understated as to be almost inaudible; there’s almost zero trace of the artist’s presence in these recordings, and very little trace of the presence of the outside world either. Already my long-cherished 1998 record (Details Aggrandis) by Bernhard Günter is starting to feel over-cluttered. Fletina may be aiming at invoking some kind of mysterious atmosphere with these low-key experiments, but for me personally there isn’t quite enough substance; it’s as though we’re invited to contemplate an empty sky, but somehow it’s abstracted so far out of context that it doesn’t really communicate anything any more, about the sky, about the earth, or even about ourselves.
I see they’ve made a further eight records in like manner, one of them simply called Pocket Of Air. Curious listeners may want to investigate The Given Moment, released in Ireland by Fort Evil Fruit, a full-length item which is gathering positive notices, and may satisfy my cranky old-fashioned cravings for “content” and “structure”, since it’s more of a combinatory-collage of various unrelated field recordings. (21/07/2021)