Conceptually boring sounds turning non-boring by means of John Cage’s ideas, how sounds can
change you following Karlheinz Stockhausen’s trains of thought and desireless being inside music
as the best place to be as exemplified by Terry Riley form the backbone of 1 by Radbous Mens and
Matthijs Kouw. Abstract modular drones, barely there in terms of rhythm, weave in and out of an
evolving aural field like the protuberances thinning out at the edges of Mark Rothko’s fields of
colour gently being washed out into the base plane. Mens and Kouw’s figures level out around
pulsating and undulating frequencies in a GRM-like symphony which is indebted as much to the
aforementioned composers as it is to visual artists such as Agnes Martin and Alan Charlton.
Recorded live in the studio Mens and Kouw experiment with the ease and unease with which
domesticated and habituated frequencies work within our bodies; both mentally and physiologically.
The results are appeasing, easing and peaceful but surprisingly enough subtle movements and
slight shifts produce a confusing, complex mesh of dense drone – colliding tones, clusters forming
in space like thin layers of almost washed out white paint collecting nuance and grey-ish moiré
overlays. Dynamic turns do not necessarily seem to occur by means of controlled volume masses
in crescendo or diminuendo, but grow almost naturally from accretion of non-habitual waves
grinding along side each other. No head-on collisions here but a slow bend in and blend of acoustic
phenomena where minimal tonal material produces massive (literally) results in terms of tactile,
immersive monumentality in aural power. A record that produces magnitude in the shades thrown
by towering sine waves.
(Sven Schlijper-Karssenberg)
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