Review of Letter Of Sounds [12k1038]

E-I (US)

There’s a downward slope implied on Letter Of Sounds making it a music ideally suited to the demands implicit in following after any literal or imagined denouement. So, beginning after the event with a somewhat more structured piece that relies on recognizable pacing, contrast and the entrance and exit of various fields gated against the muted pulse of an electric piano-like voice, the deconstructed rhythmic gestures of Letter Of Sounds wastes no time in choosing the entropic path. From that first—called “02”—the trajectory tails into a shimmering and vocally-induced piece that plays with resonance, extending and sharing frequencies between sources as it hovers between the intelligible inflections of song and a kind of early 21st century melisma, all beauty and decay. The rest follows a trajectory of thinning and clotting. Fourcolor traces an arc of accumulating abstraction, where traditional scales gradually yield their adherence to tonality and the silences become dominant over the sounds which at one point cease any and every intimation of motion. The overall effect is one of persistent, subtle and hushed airiness, opening and closing with and against every occurrence. Ultimately, Letter Of Sounds arrives in terra cognito, a post-ambient harbor that finds the right mark between minimalism and extravagance, attention and inattention, gesture and stillness and the wholly impartial surround.- K. LEIMER

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