CHRISTOPHER
WILLITS "FOLDING, AND THE TEA" (12K1021)
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ALL
MUSIC GUIDE (US)
Immediate
comparsions to Oval and Fennesz will be the first thing coming
to mind upon listening to "Folding, and the Tea". And while
they are mildly reasonable, they are also far too convenient
to accurately describe what Willits does on his debut release
for 12k. Digitally processed guitar washes flow in and out of
sync with one another, creating rhythmic patterns that are implied,
rather than jumping out directly to the front of each composition.
Tasteful melodies and harmonic patterns tease one another with
great frequency and the interplay between harmony and dissonance.
What sets Willits apart from the pack is his attention to detail
and concentration on guitar textures. In a style where releases
of this caliber are few and far between, this one is definitely
worth seeking out. - Rob Theakston
AUTRES DIRECTIONS (FR)
Bon
nombre d'artistes, parmi lesquels Fennesz ou Greg Davis, se
sont intéressés au traitement de la guitare immergée
dans le cadre d'une musique électronique. Christopher
Willits s'y frotte également sur son quatrième
album, Folding, And The Tea, qui paraît chez 12k (Taylor
Depree, Sogar, Ghislain Poirier). Justement proche de ceux de
Fennesz ou d'Oval, l'art de Willits consiste à fragmenter,
diluer, reconstruire les sons de guitare à l'aide de
sa laptop, avec une approche pointilliste et minimale dans la
mélodie comme dans le beat. Le résultat est pourtant
ici assez différent, disons bien moins extrémiste,
des oeuvres des artistes précités et se rapproche
davantage du dernier Dorine_Muraille ou de Cordell Klier par
exemple, si l'on excepte quelques interstices plus brouillons
exclusivement digitaux. D'autre part, chez Willits les compositions
semblent vraiment spontanées. Willits maîtrise
ses patterns, crée de délicieux grains, sait jouer
de l'effet de varaitions, et Folding, At The Tea est un album
frais mais abouti, à l'humeur joliment mélancolique.
Pas de bravoure ici, mais des textures en suspension, flottantes,
à la fois irréelles et accessibles. - stéphane
BAD ALCHEMY (DE)
Willits
setzt der digitalen Atomisierung eine Theorie der Falte entgegen.
Unter Bezug auf den Mille-Plateaux-Guru Gilles Deleuze, der
sich widerum mit dem Monadologen, Differntial und Integralpionier
Leibniz auseinandersetzte, erschuf er in Berkeley, CA, von platzenden
Bläschen umfunkelte, dunkle, stottrig zuckende Gebilde,
die sich erst allmählich als zusammenhängendes Kontinuum
von fließenden Powerbook-Glitches und dichten Schichtungen
von Gitarrenlinien erschließen. Was zuerst nur als Deponie
lose aufgeschütteter Partikel anmutet, erweist sich als
Blätterteig aus 'Fold, Refold, Folding Again' - Prozessen.
Oder einfach als abstrakte bis lauwarme, dezente Ambientfolie,
die sich zurück schieben oder über den Kopf ziehen
låsst, mal Tapete, mal Kokon.
BLOW UP (IT)
...On the other hand 12k is one of the few labels in the electronica
genre willing to bet on new names and projects with a non-immediate
commercial appeal. So here's the debut CD by Christopher Willits,
a guitarist with a degree in electronic music at the Californian
authorative Mills College, a work of neat rhythmic and melodic
geometries, tiny sketches which spontaneously spring from the
electronic elaboration in real time of delicate guitar chords,
stellar dust of glitch encrusted on the old good six strings
in a dialectical brood over continuity and fragmentariness (the
emphasis on the fold - even the sleeve is folding! - has been
directly borrowed from Leibniz and Deleuze).
CHRONIC
ART (FR)
A sequel to Pollen (Fallt), Folding, And The Tea is the fourth
record of Christopher Willits, newcomer on 12k. At first sight
quite close to Sogar or Mitchell Akiyama (author of a sumptuous
Temporary Music on Raster-Noton), the musical world of this
californian guitar player, former student of Pauline Oliveros
and of Fred Frith, is part of a promising renewal of the 'aesthetics
of failure' as put into words by Kim Cascone in his analysis
of the course followed by 'post digital' music, starting from
the first records of Oval based on scarified CDs. Far from squeezing
to the last drop the glitch strategy to offer nothing but a
vain and aesthetic rehash, Willits makes the most of one of
its aspects-sound fragmentation- to insert it into an original
perspective (again) borrowed to Deleuze: that of the fold. Conceived
as a mere demarcation in a continuous form, the folded line
'retains the fluidity of the wholeness'. Writing on 'the division
of the continuous', Leibniz preferred to the image of sand with
its separate grains, the image of the sheet of paper that can
be forever folded. Composed from a computer patch plugged to
a guitar, the sixteen pieces of Folding, And The Tea thus generate
an origami music where each click-beat becomes a crack in a
sound continuum, a fold in a soft-key material. In this respect,
the exploration of the sound properties of symmetry makes of
Folding…the opposite of hazard-based music. Willits also
achieves here an utterly tender and moving record, which doesn’t
spoil our pleasure.
DE:BUG
(DE)
I wish computers had never happened. Then it would never have
occurred to Christopher Willits send his amazing guitar pinkeling
through the machine only to let them smothered by clicks. If
you put that to one side, a whole new world opens up. It would
be great to hear the original tapes I'm sure I would fall in
love, that's for sure. This way it all sounds like an oval'esque
distortion.
ETHEREAL
(FR)
Alors que vient de sortir le dernier disque de Taylor Deupree,
son label, 12k, continue à signer de jeunes artistes
et publie le nouvel album de Christopher Willits, musicien américain
déjà auteur d'albums autoproduits et d'un disque
paru l'an passé sur le label irlandais Fällt.
Lignes de guitare électronisée très proches
de celles développées par Fennesz dans Endless
Summer, ambiance générale peu éloignée
de celle des premiers disques d’Oval, collages déjà
entendus chez de nombreux musiciens français (Hypo, Gel:/Dorine_Muraille),
la musique de Christopher Willits a beau être plaisante
et appréciable, elle n’en est pas moins fortement
peu originale. L’album se déroule tranquillement,
sans heurts particuliers, mais une impression de relative fadeur
s’installe progressivement et persiste tout au long de
Folding, and the Tea.
Passant de titres basés sur une mélodie saccadée
à d’autres où le travail est plutôt
axé sur les textures, l’américain évolue
dans des sentiers ultra-balisés et maintes fois parcourus
par d’autres avant lui. De même, lorsqu’il incorpore
des éléments et sonorités micro-électroniques
à sa musique, ce n’est qu’une simple redite
des canons du genre. Pour autant, ce qu’il fait n’est
pas désagréable et s’écoute sans mal,
il en ressort même une certaine mélancolie et une
émotion touchante ; en fait, il y manque "juste" de l’originalité
(on mettra, toutefois, au crédit de Willits une pochette
joliment épurée et amusante où on est invité
à réaliser, à l’aide de pointillés
prédécoupés, le pliage évoqué
dans le titre de son album). - François Bousquet
GEIGER (DK)
Lige
siden Brian Eno for alvor begyndte at teoretisere over sin egen
ambient-musik, har distinktionen mellem ”populær”-musik
og ”kunst” musik været endegyldigt uddateret.
Ikke at der var meget mere mening i at opfatte den megen anden
tilsvarende musik med en perifer tilknytning til rock og pop
(fra de tidlige kraut-lydflader over Enos egne forudgående
instrumentalplader til den begyndende industrial) som ”populær”
musik, men med karakteren af klart gennemtænkte musikalske
projekter/processer var der ikke længere noget at rafle
om: Denne niche af elektronisk musik var på alle tænkelige
måder kunstmusik - og det i en sådan grad, at den
kun manglede det akademiske blåstempel for virkelig at
være akademisk. Det har den siden hen, til en vis grad
i hvert fald, fået, og den dag i dag er store dele af
Enos arvtagere – og Eno selv – rykket ind på
institutionerne; primært som Lydsiden til kunstudstillinger
og diverse multimedieprojekter, om end stadig ikke som en del
af konservatoriernes verden. Stilen synes at udgøre en
helt selvstændig strøm, der måske nok er
lidt mere imødekommende (og tilsvarende sælger
lidt bedre) end den klassisk udviklede model, men alt andet
lige er lige så teoretisk begrundet. Et glimrende eksempel
kunne være New York-pladeselskabet 12k, som på to
nye udgivelser leverer en så teoretisk indspist musik
– i knasende kedelige covere (selv for cd’er) –
at den sagtens kan hamle op med enhver form for moderne elektroakustisk
musik, som stort set ingen har hørt om. Og det er der
sådan set ikke noget i vejen med - der er meget fremragende
elektroakustisk musik, som stort set ingen nogensinde har hørt
om. Problemet er, at der også er ufattelig meget af det,
som lyder mistænkeligt ens - og på dette område
står pseudo-avantgarden heller ikke tilbage for den ægte
vare, om end forbillederne befinder sig et andet sted.
I tilfældet Christopher Willits og dennes Folding and
the Tea har forbilledet så tydeligt været Oval,
som, hvis man alene ser på mængden af musik, som
aldrig ville have lydt på samme måde uden dem, må
opfattes som en af halvfemsernes mest indflydelsesrige grupper
overhovedet. Af de utallige varianter af glitch og click’n’cut,
som voksede ud af deres oprindelige digitalfejl-som-lydkilde-koncept,
har mange heldigvis prøvet at iblande en bredere vifte
af inspirationer og skævheder – og på den måde
har stilen på et vist niveau holdt den stagnation stangen,
som ellers syntes at ligge yderst latent allerede i de oprindelige
Oval-plader. Men sådan leger vi ikke hos Willits, der
bekender sig til den helt klassiske og ubesmittede glitch, som
den lød på Ovals Systemisch - blot gjort endnu
mere ren og enkel. Lyden er varm, blød, stilfærdig
og meget ens hele vejen igennem. Pladens eneste berettigelse
skulle så være, at det virkelig er svært at
have noget imod en musik, som er så rar og imødekommende,
og som man i dén grad blot kan lade sig omgive af - men
på den anden side er det også svært virkelig
at lade sig begejstre af den.
GROOVES
(US)
12k's
latest signing has a background in Kansas City post-rockers
Saturn138 and studied structure-generating processes in music
at Mills College (whose alumni include John Cage and Steve Reich).
Not surprisingly, the basis of Folding, and the Tea is
the processing of acoustic guitar notes through software to
create complex, latter-day systems music. As is often the case
with these exercises (Dan Abrams' Stream and Fennesz's
Instrument are close parallels) the record is constituted
by warm, drifting tones suspended amidst glitch and detritus.
Sometimes, as on "Or with the Tea," the guitar lies
naked on the surface, all but unsoiled by a modicum of "errors,"
strummed as though this were Papa M feeling particularly picturesque.
Most of the time, through, the instrument becomes unrecognisable,
sunk into software code to leave jittery traces. If it's hardly
a novel idea, it is executed with sufficient panache as to be
well above any suggestions of stagnacy.
Postmodernist theory underpins the album (the "folding"
in question is a Deluzian notion, an irruption on an otherwise
undifferentiated surface), but this is an accessible affair
and it really isn't necessary to grapple with the academic literature
to get a kick from Willits' music. Like work from labelmates
Sogar and Shuttle358, Folding, and the Tea conveys an
emotive side, and whereas those other acts are imbibed with
poignancy and sadness, Willits sounds as though he's grinning
his rear end off. This is a very literal take on the notion
of laptop music as "folk music," since that's exactly
what it sounds like - the downhome country blues scrambled,
but its farmyard spirit never completly erased. Another kick
in the teeth for the smug acolytes who dismiss this stuff as
too minimal for its own good. - John Gibson
HAUNTED
INK (US)
At
first listen, Christopher Willits' Folding, and the Tea is eerily
reminiscent of Fennesz's Endless Summer, as both are centered
around fractured and fragmented guitar melodies. Granted, Fennesz's
work digitally reconfigures Beach Boys and other surfer melodies,
while Willits' work digitally reworks his own jazz guitar noodles.
Hence, the resultant works do not literally sound the same.
But they do share a distinctive aesthetic--the digital manipulation
of the most "traditional" of traditional rock instruments. But
this similarity should not be construed as a mark against Willits'
work, for this, the latest in a long line of excellent 12k releases,
is too interesting in its own right to be diminished by a work
that was released a year earlier.
The title, Folding, and the Tea, doesn't make a lot of sense,
but I think the "folding" part refers to the way in which the
guitar melodies that form the primary musical source are digitally
twisted (folded) to create new and complex patterns. The sixteen
songs represented here thus start off with (generally) the same
premise--a soothing guitar melody. It does not take long, however,
for that melody to turn into a series of granular waves, each
one different from the last. As a result, there is an amazing
variety of sounds here. Some songs (like "Fold, Refold, Folding
Again") bounce and spin around like a drunken grasshopper; some
songs ("Free Singing Strawberries for Children") seem like Boards
of Canada tunes that have been left out in the rain too long;
some songs ("...Makes Shadow the Shape of Half-Moons") are the
musical equivalent of a panic attack.
What brings these disparate patterns of sound together is the
work's melancholic tone. Each of these tracks bleeds sadness,
moaning and fretting and whimpering like a disgruntled elf.
Now, the simple fact that I link a particular emotional state
to an electronic work flies in the face of the generally held
belief that electronic music lacks humanity. This belief is
obviously bogus, but it raises an interesting question: what
is the source of this album's melancholia, the "traditional"
instrument or the digital fragmentation? After listening to
this album carefully for two weeks, I think I can accurately
say that the emotional focus of this album stems from the "folds"
themselves: those few moments in each track where the guitar
sounds become granulated patterns. It is the transformation
of traditional, easily identifiable sounds into strange, creepy
noises that give these tracks such resonating force.
And
this is, perhaps, why Christopher Willits, like Fennesz and
Zammuto and Random Inc. and V/VM before him, is so interested
in the idea of fusing old instruments with digital signal processing:
not to create new sounds but to redefine the old sounds so that
we hear them, and experience them, in ways that challenge our
fundamental attitudes towards music, towards sound, and even
towards life itself. Folding, and the Tea is a powerful work,
as unsettling as it is inspiring.
NEURAL
(IT)
The
dismemberment of a guitar sound can be all consuming and exciting
at the same time, expecially if its metamorphosis is being treated
by Christopher Willits. Currently living in Chicago, this young
artist (also active in the fields of painting, sculpture and
video art) has been able to create a 'relentlessly' beautiful
and original album. Deconstructing guitar chords in a indeterminate
way, he has then structured these sixteen tracks on the border
of melody and glitch by sudden intuition. So you can go through
peaceful rows of granular sounds ('Scrims') or waver between
clicks e acoustic intermittences ('Filtered Light'), dealing
with the pure pleasure these sounds are able to convey. A real
electroacoustic heaven which finds a commemorative moment to
sweetness in the 18 seconds of 'Drifting Below The Oak...',
as well as its obscure and melancholic side in 'Fold, Refold,
Folding Again'. An album not to be missed and bound to be remembered
for a long time by the followers of the genre. - Michele Casella
PEACE WARRIORS (FR)
Christopher Willits, quant à lui, s'est arreté
aux limites et contraintes de l'ordinateur pour un disque si
commun au'on s'y ennuie. Deux solutions: soit il ne connaissait
pas l'existence du enless summer de Fennesz (mego), soit
il l'a trop écouté, tant la ressemblance et troublante.
Sans aucun intérét.
URBAN
MAG (BE)
Een
nieuwe artiest op 12K is de experimentele gitarist Christopher
Willits. Hij studeerde aan het Mills College, onder meer bij
Pauline Oliveros en bij Fred Frith. Willits exploreert het Deleuziaanse
principe van de 'fold' of de plooi. Op Folding, And The Tea
plakt hij melodische en geproceste gitaarlijnen op en over elkaar.
Dat vouwen en terug opvouwen levert ritmische, licht tikkende
Fennesz-achtige stukken op als 'Or With The Tea' of 'Filtered
Light'. Elders creëert hij pointillistische soundscapes
als 'Poa' of 'Scrims'. Willits speelt handig met variatie, repetitie
en zichzelf organiserende geometrische structuren. Maar Folding,
And The Tea klinkt over het algemeen net iets te braaf en te
cerebraal om ons 16 nummers lang in de ban te houden.
VITAL
WEEKLY (NL)
"The Fold is a pleat, or demarcation in a continuous form.
It implies continuity, not discrete parts. A folded line never
dissolves into striated points, it retains the fluidity of the
wholeness" said Gilles Deleuze. I have no idea who Christopher
Willits is or something about his background, but apperentely
he plays guitar, which, if I understand correctely, is being
processed in real time, so that there is a strange sense of
continuation and fragmentation at the same time. There are sixteen,
relatively short tracks on this CD, which all share the same
Ovalesque interest: a kind of cut up sound, but not digitally
distorted but rather warm, delicate and intimate. it's a great
CD for sure. However... however... but in terms of new music,
I must honestly say that this CD is also a bit outdated. It
takes the best moments of Oval's '94 Diskont' and 'Systemisch'
into a more ambient area and shorter time frames, but it's well
taken path. That is not a bad thing per se, also since Oval
didn't do much right after that, me thinks, but still it's not
a very innovative CD in case one is looking for such a thing
in music. Having said that, I do think it's a great CD in terms
of the music. What a strange paradox! (FdW)
YOT
(DE)
12k
newcomer Willits achieves a similar feeling [as Deupree on Stil.]
through punctuated guitar-work, as Folding is equal parts
Vini Reilly, Akira Rabelais, and Christophe Charles. An exciting
turn for 12k.
