Project Axis 01-A1
Troy Schafer: Piano for Voice Repeating
Release date: November 29, 2019
Reviewed format: ALAC download of Troy Schafer self-released single as kindly provided by Troy Schafer
Welcome to the first follow up review to the previous Project Axis review about Burial Hex’s excellent album The Hierophant in which today I’m featuring the first of two short single length releases that American avant-garde musician and composer Troy Schafer kindly sent me through Bandcamp download codes. In the review of The Hierophant (https://fluidsf.tumblr.com/post/190423403454/project-axis-01-burial-hex-the-hierophant) I mentioned about his great instrumental contributions to the album as well as his curious discography of solo releases and bands he is or was part of. To elaborate a bit more on that I will mention some of the artists and bands he’s worked with or performed in so far. These include Kinit Her, Second Family Band, Spiral Joy Band, Graham Lambkin, Sean McCann, Horseback, Compass Hour and Devotion. I will definitely review more releases that feature Troy Schafer on this blog at some point but for today we’ve got his solo single release Piano for Voice Repeating from last year. The version I’m reviewing here features the two tracks in nice 24-bit/44.1kHz high resolution audio as well as a photo from the very limited tape version of the release as a cover. The image itself is endearingly DIY, a small abstract minimalist painting in organic light brown colours of what looks grass near a river. The ambience of music close to nature and a comforting sense of tranquility in the image work well as artwork for the music which as you will found out now does carry a great authentic sense of honesty within the composition and performances. Indeed, let’s get to the music straight away now.
Piano for Voice Repeating is a curious release both in its concept as well as the way its executed. In the digital version it included two tracks labelled as side a and side b (mirror), showing simply which tracks went on which side of tape version. The first curious thing about the release is the (mirrored) part of side b, indeed when I first saw the titles I was wondering what this stands for and with the two tracks being identical length I even had the strange thought it might be the “mirror” of the tape sides simply, obviously it isn’t however. What it means is that we have Piano for Voice Repeating playing in forwards direction in side a and played backwards (mirrored) in side b. In this digital version without side flips this did make for a curious listening experience in that the piece actually seems to be continuous over the two tracks even with the reverse of side b. Furthermore there are certain elements within the music which are also intentionally reversed making for a surreal experience of several parts of the music with side b (mirrored) even sounding like there are multiple additional added layers in the beginning of the track, though this might be more like an auditory illusion of the mind. Piano for Voice Repeating starts with a romantic swirling violin melody fading into delay which then crosses into a great mixture of quite contrasting elements, warm melancholic and ambient piano chords, manipulated vocal music recordings as well as crackling wooden mechanical sounds that also cut into the music for a bit. Field recordings of excited screaming children also feature, subtly fading into the background. A short poem is read out in a nice low pitched heartfelt voice adding a cinematic element to the already quite surreal mixture of elements of Ambient, Sound Collage and even some mild Noise bits in the rattling mechanical sounds. As we can hear the final line of the poem (And I quietly turn towards the sea) fade into deep reverb the music fades into its longest and most abstract part. Indeed up till now Troy Schafer’s already brought us an intriguing musical world of equally tranquil and rough melodic and organic sonics with some lo-fi edge to it (some parts of the piece even have some mild crackling in it, though technically the music isn’t peaking beyond -0.00 dB), but it gets even more surreal in the mysterious flow of the second part of the piece. In this second part starts what to me feels like the soundtrack of a deep sleep or lucid dreaming in which pleasant memories from the past all get blended into this filtered strangely subdued wind of remembered events, impressions as well as mangled misremembered bits you feel like knowing but not quite recognise. There’s some strange hidden sounds in here too, mostly human mumbled, even moan like short sounds that pop up. Eerie and meditative at the same time it does give off a feeling I’d normally get when listening to Dark Ambient music and the music does indeed have some of those elements too. As we move into side b (mirrored) you might notice the aforementioned seemingly added elements to the music at its start (or reversed end of side a), the way some layers were reversed to begin with does help to focus on different details once on side b (mirrored) as you can hear various violin and piano parts being played forward this time but also sonic details like crackles and mechanical rumble of the second part in a less abstracted context. Additionally in turns the now reversed first part of side a into what again feels a bit like a soundtrack to memories floating in the subconscious, especially the vocal music samples sound particularly ghostly this way. As the mysterious yet comfortable wave of melodic sound and abstraction moves towards the end of the track the forwards playing violin tones do add these great harmonic elements of closure until the reversed romantic violin outburst closes out the track and Piano for Voice Repeating in full. Piano for Voice Repeating is a wonderful short form release of music which is as experimental as it is melodic and mixes sonic elements normally found more in crackly styles of underground music like Noise and Industrial with an imaginative introspective Ambient composition which also dives into Dark Ambient territory and through the reversal effects on the second track and also integrated in the first makes for a unique and memorable listening experience. This is a great first listen at Troy Schafer’s solo work and independently also a great listen for listeners who are into avant-garde influenced Ambient music, Sound Collage and experimental music that mixes various forms of sound, including poetry into a uniquely personal whole. Definitely check this release out.
Piano for Voice Repeating is available as a download from Troy Schafer's Bandcamp page here: https://troyallenschafer.bandcamp.com/album/piano-for-voice-repeating