Four releases from Room40 which arrived 31 October 2023.
Ngunmal (RM4214) by Amby Downs (sometimes called Tahlia Palmer) is more than just sound art, but an attempt to highlight serious issues about dispossession and trauma. Palmer herself is part Murri, part European, born in Western Australia and living in Naarm; and she’s inherited the histories of her Dutch grandparents who survived World War II. Even her alias “Amby Downs” honours the memory of her Murri ancestors who worked in servitude in that part of Queensland. With these facts in mind, it might be quite poignant that Lawrence English has added “fence recordings” to a part of this release. Solemn and almost quite severe in nature, these pieces are intended to invoke within the listener the sense of feeling “unsettled”, the better to emphasise the theme.
From NSW, JWPaton has his Structures (RM4227) album which like the above, may also be referring back to Australia’s history, its ancestors, and seeking a sense of “identity” – whether for himself, or the entire country. By way of background anecdote, he offers his own reading of the 1981 movie Thief starring James Caan and directed by Michael Mann, an under-rated cinematic gem in the “neo-noir” mode. It happens to have soundtrack music from Tangerine Dream. I’m not sure which parts of the above have affected JWPaton, but he has a very specific interpretation of a scene which far exceeds Mann’s original intent, and has integrated it with his artistic mission. Odd field recordings and very upfront “roar of stone” ambient sounds abound. Slightly drifty and shapeless, but dramatic and affecting.
Kate Carr is an accomplished electro-acoustic composer and has a release on the Persistence of Sound label, coincident with her moving to London and performing with Iain Chambers. I think she’s Australian-born, though is less specific about territories and identities than our two friends above, and declares her life’s work is about “articulating our relationships with each other and the spaces we move through”. One might suppose A Field Guide to Phantasmic Birds (RM4218) is derived from field recordings of members of the avian kingdom, but even on this simple point I’m not entirely sure; she includes bird recordings, but also seems to be imagining and inventing a lot of it, including the very lush environment where the birds can be found. “Scaffolds of sound” and “technicolor jungles” are just two of the phrases she uses to describe this studio-bound achievement. I shan’t say she’s built an entirely happy place; something about the entire environment reeks of decay, or imminent loss, and it has the faded beauty of a 19th century lagoon.
Jonathan Wilson lives on Darug and Gadigal land in Sydney (a territory also of interest to Jim Denley, who has worked and recorded there); he draws attention to his fact even if this record isn’t directly addressing the “dispossession” themes alluded to above. Recorded under his J. WLSN alias, Slipped (RM4166) is made with guitar loops, synths and pedals, all captured with unusual lo-fi recording methods, and exhibits the same kind of labour-intensive production method as previous outings like 1993. Wilson doesn’t like to talk much about his artistic process or his intentions, but he’s always got an anecdote or two about his family and his home life, from which I infer that his creative actions are as much a part of life to him as his personal situation. He likens this collection to “drawing and collage”, but to me it feels more like a sketchbook – uncertain and unfinished.