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Palimpsesto - Thanos Chrysakis, Dario Bernal Villegas and Oli Mayne | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Deriving from the Greek for ‘again’ and ‘to rub smooth’, a palimpsest is, traditionally, a parchment that has been rubbed clean and then reused, each re-writing leaving its own faint traces. The musicians featured on Palimpsesto have set out to achieve this through sound: Is music but a palimpsest in the air? A moment to moment of writing and erasing different temporal layers? A coexistence of what we have accumulated, and how we relate, and respond to the instruments and to each other, in the course of a musical encounter? - Thanos Chrysakis Palimpsesto is a collaboration between Thanos Chrysakis (vibraphone, live electronics, marimba, prepared piano), Dario Bernal Villegas (drums, marimba, bass-drum/cymbals, inside piano) and Oli Mayne on vibraphone and was recorded at Goldsmiths’ Electronic Music Studios between 2006-7. Tuned percussion forms the backbone of many tracks, but Palimpsesto varies from quietly melodic to intense and visceral. Tracks such as ‘Opiophobia’ play with rhythm and fixed pitches whereas the opening track ‘Terse Symmetry’ explores the piling up and then rubbing away of percussive timbres. It’s easy to imagine this disc as a slightly warped work of early minimalism, like a Philip Glass record that’s been left out in the elements for a few weeks; with ‘Checkmate’ the record has begun to curl a little at the edges, whereas with the grooves for ‘Fountains of Violet’ have picked up some grit and scratches. ‘Phosphoros’ draws in the listener through fragile, spindly melodic fragments occasionally interrupted by delicate noises. The sound of breathing betrays a human presence hidden in the background. The strange pulsations of ‘Sonoric Clay’ are like trying to free one’s feet from sonic mud, an incredibly physical gesture that would be even more striking performed live. Palimpsesto blurs the boundary between ‘natural’ or live acoustic sound and processed electronic materials. This is achieved through the choice of instrumentation, which is heavily reliant on percussion, often played in an unconventional manner. The tracks are improvisations, seemingly leading to an occasional sparseness, and this combination of textures and timbres is in some ways reminiscent of early pioneers of electronic music. At its best this approach allows a fascinating exploration of sonorities, but at other times seems to lose its way. For me, Palimpsesto is less a writing over and more of a rubbing away, slowly revealing something hidden. Sounds weave patterns and then fade, leaving only their reverberations - in the air and in the sounds that follow. Review by Stacey Sewell
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