Label: Resonance
Catalog#: res07
Format: CD, Album
Country: France
Released: 2003
DISCOGS OFFICIAL
1 Touching Rain Songs 6:48
2 Out Of Phase 9:35
3 Paroi 2:45
4 Curved Ascending Air 7:08
5 Slate Sections 1 6:18
6 Slate Sections 2 4:01
7 Slate Sections 3 8:24
8 Slate Sections 4 6:13
9 Paroi Abdominale 6:32
10 Wood Wind 3:44
11 Coupled 2:12
12 Bruine 5:24
listen #2
This collection combines live recordings made underground in the Carrière de Vignemont in Loches, near Tours in France, (where four of my sound sculptures are housed permanently) with recordings made in my home studio. Like Bees in the Bathroom, the emphasis is on long tracks, and these explore the sound of the quarry as much as the sculptures and instruments. All the sounds apart from the saxophone and the quarry wall, Paroi and Paroi Abdominale, are made by sound sculptures and instruments I have made. Out of Phase and Slate Sections exploit a different technique. The sounds are all made by my slate marimbas, but they are sampled and then played by a keyboard and sequencer. - www.willmenter.com
bio.
Musician and visual artist, Will Menter has forged his own path in cross-art-form work through his innovative combinations of improvisation with composition and the creation of new instruments, sound sculptures and site-specific installation. Starting from a jazz base in the 1970s, his work has since developed to a point where music and sculpture are inseparably intertwined. From 1975 until the early 80s Will was one of the driving forces behind the Bristol Musicians’ Co-operative, which explored new areas of free improvisation and cross-art-form collaboration. Will’s musical projects included Wind and Fingers, Community, Both Hands Free and Overflow. He directed two ambitious cross-art-form projects in the 90s. Cân Y Graig – Slate Voices explored the world of slate and the quarries of North Wales and was the first extensive use of Will’s slate marimbas, while 1994’s Strong Winds and Soft Earth Landings was a collaboration with Zimbabwean artists based around the mbira. Since 1998 Will has been living in France and has developed his sound sculpture work, concentrating on the untransformed sounds of natural materials. There are permanent exhibitions of his work in nature at Hoscheid in Luxembourg, and underground at the Carrière de Vignemont, Loches, and in the town of Montbéliard. He has released a series of four solo CDs that juxtapose the sounds of his sculptures with recorded natural sounds and instrumental music. His fifth CD, Song Sculptures (2004) was a series of songs written for the voice of Sianed Jones together with eight of Will’s sculptures, percussion and double bass. More recently he has been developing collaborations with dancers Aurore Gruel and Mure Natale, and with ceramicist Jane Norbury with whom he has developed many of his sound sculptures and performances. In December 2007 Will published a book of photos and texts with an accompanying CD, called Bits of Wood. He is currently working on the sequel to that, consisting of 3 audio CDs and a 200 page book, entitled “Always Sound”. Perhaps the overall development in his work is a gradual move away from the idea of projecting music to an audience, towards the idea of inviting people to share and explore a sensory experience.
