| Info |  |
Three Rooms - Steve Peters | |||||||||||||||||||
| |
 Steve Peters is a sound artist who was located for many years in the American Southwest, and has recently relocated to Seattle. His recent CD on the Sirr label, Three Rooms, documents three of his site-specific installations from the years 2002-2004, including photos of all three sites and a brief description of each installation. Delicate Abrasions is a perfect description of the piece, which was originally displayed in an old warehouse full of the detritus that Peters used as sound sources. The piece opens with a couple of subdued ceramic knocks, but rather quickly incorporates a number of other small clunks, raspings, whistlings and scrapings. It's all very leisurely, a quiet stroll around the sonic trash heap. Center of Gravity is a remnant of Peters' last solo concert, in which he used his breath as the sound source, processed with reverb and delay. Each breath was treated as a distinct composition, separated with a random amount of silence. There are seventeen mini-compositions over the course of the twenty-minute track, ranging from low rumbles to high whistles, quiet remblings to jet-engine roars. Each composition shares a common sound world, but the overall effect is less like a suite, but a set of variations that could go on indefinitely. Mountains Hidden In Mountains takes a very simple premise and extends it longer than one might think possible. There are three bell strokes at the beginning of the piece, and just as one thinks the resonance is fading out, it fades in again, and stretches for a glorious half hour. Overtones ebb and flow, gently pulsing and barely evolving, but the high overtones gradually give way to a sustained, very low drone, down to about 40 hz (cheap speakers beware). Most CDs of recorded music are a reduction from a primary experience, typically a live performance (albeit idealized). Three Rooms is a reduction of three art exhibits, which have a very different listening profile from a concert. People may wander in and out, with very remaining for the entire duration of the sounds (which may repeat in an endless loop), or there may be an interactive side of the composition (as there was for the bell piece here, Mountains Hidden In Mountains). This gives installations even more of a static content than even the slowest ambient music, which often tries to take the listener to a particular state of mind. These pieces construct an environment to frame and encourage a quiet reflection, or to bring hidden qualities of the material environment into the open. Three Rooms is one of the more successful examples of the genre, as the pieces stand on their own, without reference to the installations that produced them. Review by Caleb Deupree
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
