Review of Faint [12k1073]

Neural (IT)

Very delicate envelopes, persuasive textures and circular, repetitive tunes: the quietist textures of the recordings by Taylor Deupree reverberate impalpably, elusively, beatifically – thanks to dreamy drones, carefully produced environmental patterns, electroacoustic resonances and other immaterial suggestions. <i>Faint</i> is presented in a double version, the classic hardback digipack in the tradition of 12K, and a deluxe box, which includes another cd featuring the extended version of “Thaw”. This exclusive package also contains twelve pictures shot by Deupree himself with a homemade 35mm camera. This handcrafted work underlines the artist’s almost maniacal precision and commitment to details. The record’s experimentations are always “narrated” through highly dilated and elegant settings. We are presented with hisses of a remote radio, some very fragile synthonies, wind passing through fields, and acousmatic micro emergencies. According to the author the work deals with “small fractions of time, half awake”. Deupree specializes in the perception of faint realities, “the ontologically fleeting moment of the present”, in which impulses are slowed and deep emotions surface in a manner that is not always easy to interpret. Art has historically been able to fix the transience of the moment in an artwork: once upon a time, this would have been called “genre painting”. In <i>Faint</i> the compositional structures of the representation are permeated by lightness and uncertainty, expressing vibrancy and airiness with extraordinary grace. – Aurelio Cianciotta

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