Lind, raud, aastaajad.
YANNICK DAUBY, JOHN GRZINICH, MURMER
(Invisible Birds 2012)
Spring is floating in the air. One can feel it, our bodies know it, and there’s probably no better time to creep into “Lind, Raud, Aastaajad”, an ensemble of site-specific field recordings captured around 2007 in selected loci of appealing Estonia by Yannick Dauby talked into by Patrick McGinley (Murmer) and personally guided by John Grzinich…
Needless to say things are rather starting auspiciously.
Estonian landscapes seem to exude a pristine quality, largely left unpolluted by the bane of noise parasites infiltrating every corner of our cities & suburbs…
So, what we have on disc 1, are lively luminous birds songs spreading in this postcard alike Baltic panorama, isolated slices of life shining in their full splendor…
More than ever here, the artist’s ego fades away, and his main role is the one of being a simple transmitter…Yannick lends us his sharp ears, and freezes moments of precious reality into condensed frames of radiant beauty…
Birds songs alternate with metal songs coming from fences and strings, improvised musical mobiles self playing along the vibrating air, and the wind modulations…
These metallic chorals appear like the last witnesses of human activity, though much in symbiosis with the pure birds songs in a way…
All pieces conjure together a true haven of peace, something cruelly missing from our hectic, feverish environments…
An opportunity to slow down, if only for a while, and observe what the world has to offer to the one who is not in a perpetual hurry…
It just cries out also: ”Life is Music, Music is Life”…
…in the same breath, “Raud 07.07.03 Laaksare”, the penultimate clanging, resonating piece seems like a visceral call to open our own windows, and listen for ourselves…
Disc 2 are reappropriations of Dauby’s material respectively honed by John with “Sügis” & “Kevad”, and assembled by Murmer for “Talv” & “Suvi”…All these compositions have been enhanced with Yannick Dauby’s delicate electronic sounds mostly forming a skeleton of circular/spiraling motifs inviting to contemplation…
“Sügis” is the wind talking, and crows conspiring against it…and further, gentle rain and slight undefined household and outdoor manipulation of objects…perhaps a slow awakening from a winter retreat…
“Talv” slackens chosen sequences of crunching sounds centered on the act of walking, considering them at various distances from the microphone…friction, physical contact with the earth till going back to the “home sweet home” refuge, and letting ourselves be lulled to the reassuring fire crackle…
“Kevad” distills small drops, in an almost silent empty church like space, and then throws us in a glade ringing again with different interlaced birds songs…
“Suvi” begins with water flowing, always the same, yet always different, and the buzzing of insects at various speeds…all in unison with the blooming, ever changing vegetation…ending with the rustle of leaves, and soft lapping & dripping…
Internalization of the landscape and its morphings, ele-mental analogy, “Lind, Raud, Aastaajad” cleaving perfectly to Invisible Birds ‘ credo decline like three magic words to be granted an access to the healing dimensions of Nature…
Not so far in intent maybe from Alio Die’s droning mantras…
-Daniel Crokaert
Yannick Dauby website
John Grzinich website
Murmer website
Invisible Birds wesbite
Leave a Reply