Fennesz - Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not '2010

Tracks list

The continuing project of On -- where each new release by the duo of Sylvain
Chauveau and Steven Hess becomes a remix collaboration with another artist --
reaches another peak with the release of Something That Has Form and Something
That Does Not. There's a simple but key reason -- this time around, the
collaborator is Fennesz, the noted Austrian guitarist/soundscape creator who
thrives in partnerships as much as he does on his own. Hearing the high,
persistent feedback scrawl on the opening "The Inconsolable Polymath" almost
marks his participation from the start, but the best partnerships find ways to
meet in the middle; the floating drones and calm piano suggest, however subtly,
something different from the invited guest. From there the album progresses with
five tracks of varying length, with a crumbling wash of sonics set against a
calm, sudden precision that could come from any of the participants -- the
arcing whine of something almost mechanistic on "Blank Space," the metronymic
yet still almost strangely unstable cymbal hits on "A Tardy Admission That the
Crisis is Serious." The title track's use of percussion starting almost five
minutes in after an extended drone/loop opening is a nice enough touch of drama,
but even more appealing when it makes the music sound like a murkier, late Talk
Talk instrumental. Meanwhile, the concluding "The Sound of White" might be the
most opaque of the five tracks -- less obviously a collaboration between two
different acts than something else again, a flowing movement over 20 minutes of
a bright loop, implied rhythms without beats, and the occasional chime.


Tracklist:
1.01 - On - The Inconsolable Polymath (5:32)
1.02 - On - Blank Space (6:11)
1.03 - On - Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not (13:02)
1.04 - On - A Tardy Admission That The Crisis Is Serious (4:20)
1.05 - On - The Sound Of White (19:20)

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