SHUTTLE358 "FRAME" (12K1011 / 12K2005)

to translate languages, paste text here: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

---

ALTERNATIVE PRESS (US)
Ambient music, with its pendant chords and slow-motion melodies, seems perfectly suited for winter weather. Sure, it might be a pretty obvious association, but listening to the hushed splendor of Shuttle358's second CD, the most immediate references that come to mind are the sense of suspended animation that overcomes the frozen world and the hiss of snowflakes scraping across silent fields. The latter effect, along with the crackling of digital pops, links Frame to 12K's more austere incursions into microsound, but the album's lush harmonic sensibility sets it apart. Dan Abrams' first CD as Shuttle358 struck many listeners as a minor masterpiece, but Frame is even more accomplished, ranking alongside Aphex Twin's SAW II and Eno's Music for Airports in its evocation of imaginary space. Chords of indeterminate tuning flicker across the spectrum, rubbed raw by interference and speaker hum; static erupts in fractal patterns as cool-hued tones describe arctic horizons. For an alternate perspective, the Quicktime video included on the CD presents an intriguing take on urban emptiness, where the streets of Los Angeles become a place of empty passages, blown-out skies and powerlines whose ubiquity belies our essential disconnectedness. Frame is a welcome addition to the ambient pantheon and a future classic: absolutely essential listening. 5/5 - phil sherburne

AMBIENTRANCE (US)
Indefinable-though-alluring sounds are captured within Dan Abram's very computerized frame; despite their digital origins, the soundforms of shuttle358 have been reshaped into pillowy amorphousness then sprinkled with varying amounts of microscopic particles... this process of easy-on-the-ears experimentalism yields fascinating results...

Dreamy aurora-borealis-like soundwaves are pocked by rhythmicated digi-grit as frame nicely blends the disparate materials into something appealingly smooth-yet-crunchy. Mechanical resonance and faintly sputtering static drift from the warm vagueness of out out. The indeterminate echoes and hazy streams of broom are subjected to seemingly random low-level crackles.

Hovering essences radiate and glow from the electronic/industrial sheen of fissure (8:01); multilayered drones warble slightly amongst recurring soft-focus hisses and buzzes. Despite its more-organic title, lyndon tree is every bit as electronic and obtuse as its counterparts, wafting and ringing in loosely defined patterns.

(Somewhat) like clockwork, chimey/buzzy tones emit from hasp22 (3:09) as do sporadic miniature ticks. The plushly pulsating organ-like chords of calty spiral around more-ephemeral rays, and are backed by ghostly percussive presences. isonpgn's shapeless drifts of stratified ephemera are topped with a goosey honking cycle.

Within spiff's easy tones and nearly-invisible specks, speech fragments are buried, discussing the creative joys of blending one's work and hobbies. (Read the exclusive AmbiEntrance interview to learn the surprising truth about this brief, embedded conversation.)

Also included on the CD is a short "frame" video by Abrams; the motion of enigmatic drive-by urbanscapes work nicely with the snappy track.

Perhaps slightly less user-friendly (and slightly more "experimental") than his debut (1999's optimal.lp), shuttle358 still places an intriguing frame around his abstract sonic renderings. These micro-mechanical-ambient hybrids melt together in indefinite-yet-inviting slurs, texturized by static-like molecules. I'm simply sucked into these 9.3 ethereal surrealisms and recommend that you get yours from 12k before they're gone.

BLOW UP (IT)
The name of Dan Abrams, a.k.a Shuttle 358, should have been at home in the article about the new American electronic "terrorists" published a couple of issues ago.

Already author of an album on 12k (cfr. "optimal.lp") and a visual artist of good reputation, here Abrams commits himself to examining thoroughly the perceptive hypotheses caused by the correlations between container and contents, that is to sounding in which way the use of an empty frame affect our experience of what it holds: "If you put an empty frame against a blank wall - he writes - you suddenly notice the color, the patterns, the imperfections in the plaster. The frame is like a window of perception.". Mutatis mutandis he applies this concept to his sound frameworks, small digital dysfunctions suspended in huge ambient pools, frail microrhytmic roars drowned in waves of extremely rarefied textures with father Eno benevolently looking from above. The enhanced video section in quicktime format compatible with both Mac and PC contains a four minute film (also available separately as a high-res VHS release), abstract camera movements along urban environments of Los Angeles with an elegant use of a color palette of whites, blues and yellows. (7/8) - nicola catalano

BOSTON'S WEEKLY DIG (US)
picture yourself sitting at home on a blisteringly bitter winter day, sipping a cup of your favorite tea. now imagine sitting down with the mindset of being utterly ensconced in whatever form of artistic avenue of expression is near and dear to your heart. everything is exactly conducive to creativity, yet you find yourself searching for a soundtrack to compliment your tranquil state of being. last year, dan abrams, under his moniker shuttle358, released the breathtakingly gorgeous optimal.lp , which at its simplest, could be described as quite possibly one of the most complex yet peaceful bodies of ambient music released in the past few years. now a year later, abrams finally unveils frame, a montage of blissful ethereal ambient soundscapes with crackles, pops, pings and numerous other suble nuances normally found in various other genres of intelligent dance music (idm) such as microsound. abrams' shift in sound and style, prompted by a desire to reach out to the microsound crowd, succeeded in that his music contains a rather innovative approach to incorporating microsound and ambient into one composition. while frame may not be as shockingly brilliant from beginning to end as its predecessor, it still is a wonderful effort from the innovative 12k imprint. - craig kapilow

DE:BUG (DE)
Dan Abrams is the man called, who teaches the Clicks'n'Cutters of this world being afraid with 'Frame ', just because it is the best album, which appeared ever in this category, should it at all give and to Clicks & Cuts also without the same function. Frame runs practically without beats, grooves nevertheless madly pleasantly, so that one actually does not miss anything at all. Ten tracks of full warmth and depth sharpness, freely after the slogan: 'I spell experiment "surface" and not "KnirschpelKnirsch".' Frame radiates thus logical-proves in all directions, functioned in the best way in aquariums and deserts, is freely licencable as wallpaper for multistoried buildings and holds ready more than surprising things in each track. Completely free-floating fantasies, which come along now to spring more than perfectly, are almost essential. A great Quicktime movie comes with it, too. Album of the month.

FAQT (US)
I cannot get enough of Dan Abrams' work as Shuttle358. His warm ambient glitchworks flow around your head, between your ears, and insinuates themselves into your entire body - the aural equivalent of a warm bath. On "Frame", the follow-up to his 1999 debut "Optimal.Lp", Abrams continues his journey into a very personal-sounding realm of experimental electronica, one that speaks an amazing vocabulary of emotion.

The title track, which leads off the album, is centered on endless depths of swelling soft-focus drones, polyrhythmic glitch percussion, and a synth melody that has been filtered to a near-subliminal level. This sets the standard for the remaining tracks on "Frame", but each are done with such subtlety and attention to detail, it's easy to distinguish one track from the next. "Lyndon Tree" sounds like a stack of carbonated electric pianos, bubbling and ringing together in perfect fizzy harmony; the less-than-drifting "Calty" is the bastard child of Eno's ambient and the shy, pale rhythms of Mouse On Mars. Not quite minimalism, ambient, or clicks'n'cuts flavor-of-the-month, Abrams' Shuttle358 sings with a beautifully original electronic voice that is both timely and timeless.

FREE WILLISMABURG (US)
The second cd, highlighting the L-NE label, borders on the inaudible and unlistenable - some of the tones and sounds divined by artists like ROEL MEELKOP, IMMEDIA, NOSEI SAKATA, and label-owner RICHARD CHARTIER, are so ear-piercing and high-pitched, it just seems unfathomable that anyone could sit through them long enough to get the general idea of each piece. CHARTIER's "010101" is one of the more effective pieces, with a resonating frequency so high, that when you do hear it, it buzzes somewhere in the center of your skull. But as painful as it is to listen to, it successfully pushes the boundaries of silence and sound within the digital context. His label-mate MIKI YUI wields a nice sound that slowly creeps in and out of audibility and BERNHARD GUNTER has an orchestral sounding number that is as enjoyable as it is mysterious. Perhaps the L-NE cd is more focused in its minimal, mono-tone approach, but in conjunction with the 12K cd, it lacks flavor and seems pigeonholed stylistically. As a whole however, this 2cd set is a successfull exploration into a new form of communication through digital sound design, that only accepts sound in relation to no-sound. Its transparent foundation and minimal approach suggests that perhaps this is the clean slate in which the future of music is founded on. - SK

HAUNTED INK (US)
Shuttle358's Frame was released in a limited run of 500 copies in December of 2000. Like just about everything else released on the 12k label, it quickly sold out and has been praised to death by critics all over the place. However, it was recently reissued, and I finally managed to pick up a copy of this disk, and I've been listening to it ever since. Shuttle358 is Dan Abrams, a fellow (for me, anyways) Southern Californian, whose made his debut with another 12k release, Optimal.lp, a disk I don't own because it is still out of print (Taylor Deupree--free publicity on this site if you rerelease that one, too). But I do own Abrams' Mille Plateaux work, Stream, which was released in 2001 and which is an extremely interesting work. But Frame is better. How do I describe it in words? Well, I can't. But I can offer parallels and metaphors. Imagine Boards of Canada's emotional, melodic music crossed with static-charged ambience of Autechre's Tri Repetae and the propulsive minimalism of Plastikman's Consumed, and you might get a sense of Frame. This is emotionally-laden glitch music, music that is centered on the same minimalist Mille Plateaux/12k sound prevalent in experimental electronic music today, yet far more intersted in merging those clicks and cuts with slow, lilting, delicate melodies. This is a beautiful record, as quiet and as peaceful as distorted aberrated sounds can be. A good example of this is "Broom," which is not really the best track on the record, but is, in a way, perfectly representative of the work as a whole. An echoing, repeating synth line floats in the foreground, as snaps, crinkles, and a slow, steady, glitch-bass hover above, below, and behind. The snaps, crinkles, and glitch-bass move in and out in no real order (very arhythmical), but the synth line remains constant (though not entirely repetitious, as this sound changes pitch, frequency, and duration as well). These sounds move in and around for about four minutes. That's it. But what that description does not reveal is the overall effect here--the almost menacing, expectant feel that creeps in and over you as you listen to these sounds, especially that churning, stuttering, fusebox-gone-awry bass, which never seems to settle and always seems ready to burst. There is great tension here, and that tension is never reconciled, meaning that the effect of the song is to maintain a static tension that feeds into the next track, "Fissure," and its haunting, echoing static tones which feed, eventually, into quiet, haunting melodies that soothe, placate, and set to rest some of that tension. In all, it is the delicate balance between these miniature sounds and their maximum effects on the listeners that give these songs their power. If you are interested in any of the music on this site, then I encourage you to get to the 12k web site and buy yourself one of the very few copies of Frame before it is too late.

REVOLUTION (US)
if frank lloyd wright had lived to design a record label, taylor deupree's 12k imprint would be it, and shuttle358's frame would be the guggenheim. like the famous art deco architect, deupree believes in art (and, obviously, music) composed of clearn lines and precise execution, an element captured most beautifully in this second experimental electronic album by shuttle358's dan abrams.

unlike the minimal techno of thomas brinkmann or john tejada, which stives to peel away the commercialism of dance music by retreating to structured and purified beat patterns, shuttle358 dives deep into the inner mind of dance music itself. as such, frame uncoveres the hidden archetypes of dance music - be it techno, trance, drum 'n' bass or downtempo - and shows them in their most sublime state. the accented percussion pattern on the title track, "frame," bears a resemblance to underworld and even meat beat manifesto, but where those artists choose brash drums and wide-bottom basslines, abrams uses soft pops and gentle clicks that soothe the dancing impulse inside instead of disturbing it. even in its more agitated states, such as the frenetic static shocks on "sequence" or the undulating melody of "hasp22," frame foregrounds an element of ambient quietude one level removed from normal dance music. it's this clean dreaminess that makes both shuttle358 and 12k important to america's rapidly evolving experimental scene. - heath k. hignight

STATICBEATS.COM (US)
Shuttle creates subliminal scapes through forms, rhythms, and patterns in minimal electronic sounds. The tracks flow rhythmically but pulsate with organic precision. This organic or analog sound permeates almost all the tracks and it comes through with vinyl like feel. The CD has a quiet nature, it will pull some