April triptych. COLLIN THOMAS
(Resting Bell 2001)
The work of CollinThomas reminds me of the impressionist painters where they would deal primarily with moments of light rather than deal with the objects exposed to both the reflection of light and the passage of time. The impressionist were capable to depict time through light on still images but Collin Thomas is capable to depict stillness using the moving images of sound.
The idea of the moments of light make sense when you read on the liner notes for April Triptych that “…is a two hour long piece chronicling a typical suburban morning, afternoon, and night.” . Most releases have a duration of 15 minutes +- or 45 minutes+- based on the EP/LP conventions which can be found irrelevant nowadays. The duration of the timeline is probably comparable with the size of the canvas / paper on a painting. April Triptych can be described as a sonic visual film not only because of its time format but because of the way it deals with time and change.
Collin Thomas works with formal considerations from modern classical music, atonal music, film soundtrack composition and ambient music and on April Triptych he makes an emphasis on the capacity of his sound to depict and deal with “moods” (moments of light) through subtle changes made from subtle gestures; gestures that would have big repercussions on the narrative structure of the piece. The subtle changes create a sense of stillness addressed on the first paragraph and this is probably why this work reminds me of the impressionist painters. Beautiful effective music.
-John McEnroe
