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Care // Klara Lewis and Simon Fisher Turner
It might seem rather generous to refer to a four track release as an album. Care however, the latest outing on Peter Rehberg's Editions Mego, is an unlikely exodus for its succinct tracklisting. The release is authored by Swedish producer Klara Lewis and actor-come-musician Simon Fisher Turner — two acts who have both contributed to the Vienna-based label previously.
Lewis has displayed a mastery of sonic manipulation in her previous releases, creating enchanting electro-acoustic collages which push their source materials to the extreme. Fisher Turner's work on the other hand is closer to the world of traditional composition, relying more heavily on acoustic instruments and conventional writing techniques for his evocative neoclassical constructions. Their album together is a patchwork of different cultural and sonic signifiers, an approach not dissimilar to that taken by the likes of Jon Hassell or David Toop in it's untamed, free-roaming nature.
On this score, '8' is perhaps the most disconcerting. Sickly sweet sample stretches and forest ambience are punctured abruptly by fragmented blasts of warped percussion and gauzy vocal manipulations. There is something reminiscent of Vladislav Delay's Visa project in the track, with its ruptured bursts of noise, data-moshed ambience and bit-crunched percussion - a jarring blend of turmoil and tranquility. 'Drone' on the other hand takes an entirely different tact. Plaintive piano, gentles waves of static and meditative drones take on a cinematic mood, a comforting antidote to the disconcerting chaos which precedes it. Then there is 'Tank', a glistening, ethereal exploration through spacegaze ambient, faded eastern tonalities and wild explosions of glitch.
Care is an ambitious project considering the range of different styles it encapsulates, but one obviously handled with much care and respect for its sample sources. The piece holds together like a dream sequence, making perfect sense while you are in its midst, but otherwise difficult to quantify or articulate. What is certain is that Lewis and Fisher Turner make an undeniably complementary pairing, and one with plenty of scope for future innovations.
- Published
- Oct 5, 2018
- Credits
- Words by Theo Darton-Moore