Charm Point by Elizabeth Millar/Tim Olive/Craig Pedersen
Elizabeth Millar: amplified clarinet, self-made instruments
Tim Olive: magnetic pickups
Craig Pedersen: amplified trumpet
Recorded in Kobe, October 2018
Catalog Number: 845-13
Format: Glass-mastered CD; hand-stamped, recycled-chipboard cover
Limited Edition of 100
Mixed by Craig Pedersen
Mastered by Anne-F Jacques
Release: September 2019
Three people in a room. Hand-made microphones thrust into metal and wooden tubes, consumer cast-offs transformed into
home-made sound-generating/altering devices, electro-magnetism fed through simple analog circuits, sounds amplified and recorded. No overdubs, very minimal editing.
Tracklist
| 1. | Charm Point 1 | 7:16 |
| 2. | Charm Point 2 | 6:47 |
| 3. | Charm Point 3 | 15:59 |
Credits
released September 18, 2019
Brian Olewnick:
Tim Olive has been putting out generally excellent music for some fifteen years now, much of it undeservedly below the radar. Two new ones should alter that a bit... Charm Point, a brief set with Sound of the Mountain (Elizabeth Millar & Craig Pedersen) sometimes feels AMM-like, sometimes, when the pulse kicks in, like updated Voice Crack--always rich and imaginative. Do take the time to check them out.
Michael Rosenstein:
Over the course of two 7-minute pieces and one 16-minute piece, the three mine a much more restrained approach. Here, small details and timbral fragments sit against an open sound field. Sonic details tease their way into focus and then seem to evaporate into the subtly volatile flow.
Olive’s music is always imbued with the physical activities of sound-making and that carries through here as the three weave fragments of sonic detritus processed from radio grabs, stuttering motors, burred rumbles, whispered breath, fragile tones, and blurred oscillations. There’s an intimacy and immediacy that is captured in the recording. On the second piece Millar lays out fluttering and whorling tones shot through with cycling billows of breathy white noise and changeable timbral skeins. The extended length of the final piece allows them to stretch out their ideas and the patience displayed is particularly gripping. Subtle shifts in motion and inflection are allowed to gather and play out against insistent snippets of radio fragments of Japanese speakers, establishing a mutable sense of pulse. Things are slowed to a trembling crawl with abraded scrapes and bass-heavy rumbles which slowly gather momentum shot through with elusive threads of high-pitched buzzes. The three build back from the elements of all that had preceded, circling into a final stasis.
Frans de Waard:
On Charm Point, we find Olive playing with Montreal-based duo of Elizabeth Millar and Craig Pedersen, respectively on amplified clarinet and amplified trumpet. The latter two also go by the name Sound Of The Mountain. Most of the time, one doesn't recognize the instruments of Millar and Pedersen, just a faint trace thereof. Small sounds culled peeps, hiss, crackles, gentle drones, all moving slowly around; in and out of the mix, they slip slowly away. Sometimes it is all a bit louder, but throughout the work, delicacy is very much the keyword to the three pieces here, even in all their roughness. Excellent release!
Brian Olewnick:
Tim Olive has been putting out generally excellent music for some fifteen years now, much of it undeservedly below the radar. Two new ones should alter that a bit... Charm Point, a brief set with Sound of the Mountain (Elizabeth Millar & Craig Pedersen) sometimes feels AMM-like, sometimes, when the pulse kicks in, like updated Voice Crack--always rich and imaginative. Do take the time to check them out.
Michael Rosenstein:
Over the course of two 7-minute pieces and one 16-minute piece, the three mine a much more restrained approach. Here, small details and timbral fragments sit against an open sound field. Sonic details tease their way into focus and then seem to evaporate into the subtly volatile flow.
Olive’s music is always imbued with the physical activities of sound-making and that carries through here as the three weave fragments of sonic detritus processed from radio grabs, stuttering motors, burred rumbles, whispered breath, fragile tones, and blurred oscillations. There’s an intimacy and immediacy that is captured in the recording. On the second piece Millar lays out fluttering and whorling tones shot through with cycling billows of breathy white noise and changeable timbral skeins. The extended length of the final piece allows them to stretch out their ideas and the patience displayed is particularly gripping. Subtle shifts in motion and inflection are allowed to gather and play out against insistent snippets of radio fragments of Japanese speakers, establishing a mutable sense of pulse. Things are slowed to a trembling crawl with abraded scrapes and bass-heavy rumbles which slowly gather momentum shot through with elusive threads of high-pitched buzzes. The three build back from the elements of all that had preceded, circling into a final stasis.
Frans de Waard:
On Charm Point, we find Olive playing with Montreal-based duo of Elizabeth Millar and Craig Pedersen, respectively on amplified clarinet and amplified trumpet. The latter two also go by the name Sound Of The Mountain. Most of the time, one doesn't recognize the instruments of Millar and Pedersen, just a faint trace thereof. Small sounds culled peeps, hiss, crackles, gentle drones, all moving slowly around; in and out of the mix, they slip slowly away. Sometimes it is all a bit louder, but throughout the work, delicacy is very much the keyword to the three pieces here, even in all their roughness. Excellent release!
