Review of Frame [12k1011]

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

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