Resonant Cities :: Ambience for the Masses

Catalog #TOC031
Released on Trente Oiseaux

Released in 2002

Added to the site on 02003-09-21

I'm gonna rely a lot on the liner notes for this review, because details are everything. The single track is 49+ minutes, composed of 'inconsiderable things', which mr. Roden summarizes as distinct environmental characteristics which are normally dismissed. For this work, mr. Roden has chosen to begin with such sounds as coat hangers, a woolen scarf, glass doors, and a side-effect of traffic sounds in Greece. He performs his usual manipulations and transformations on his source, yet in composing them together, he largely allows the sounds to stand on their own. It's a sparse collage which only bleeds together at the edges -- that is, until the end of the piece, where he just goes hog wild with everything. Yes, so that's the details... but it says very little about what the album sounds like. In brief, I find there's something curiously voyeuristic about the listening experience, probably because it's apparent that most of it was recorded from hotel rooms. Yeah. 'Experience' is probably the best word I can think of. Like most of the artist's work, it was available as a limited release, so you may want to check the inventory at Trente Oiseaux.

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