Seven Fields of Aphelion
Periphery
Graveface Records CD
Periphery
It may not be the most economical stage name to adopt, but keyboardist Seven Fields of Aphelion certainly makes up for it with graceful compositions. Her debut CD is a departure of sorts from the type of music she plays with the group Black Moth Super Rainbow. Rather than trippy/glitchy electronica, Periphery adopts a more ambient demeanor. Vintage synthesizers and piano blend together in a number of lush, slowly unfolding instrumentals.
Elsewhere, as on “Mountain Mary,” she adopts a spacy minimalism, crafting triadic oscillations into a busily supple, sci-fi tinged canvas.
All too often, side projects can be seen as one-dimensional affairs. Happily, Periphery gives listeners a sense of SFoA as a compelling solo artist in her own right, while occasionally allowing us glimpses into the extent of her contributions to Black Moth Super Rainbow.
A number of  Sequenza 21 contributors and readers also populate the site ImprovFriday. It’s a web community that encourages sharing of improvisations, compositions with an element of improv, and recent compositional sketches at a series of web events run on … you guessed it, Fridays.
While this all sounds very free form, the group has specific guidelines for participation, found here. Employing these operating principles are a wide ranging group of spontaneous creators: diverse in style, outspoken yet constructive in critiquing each others’ work, but unified in ambitious music-making.
For Sequenza 21 readers, the list of participants contains several of our ‘usual suspects:’ Steve Layton, David Toub, J.C. Combs, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, and Bruce Hamilton. Included below are a few sound snippets for your preview.
The last time we covered Lokai in these pages, it was to discuss their own dalliance with film scoring. But it’s worth returning to the Austrian duo to spotlight Transition, their sophomore LP and debut on the Thrill Jockey imprint.
Though both started out primarily as guitarists, Transition has a far more expansive timbral palette. The music is rife with chiming sustained intervals and brittle, percussive rustlings. Basic ideas start with primarily organic building blocks, including found objects such as duct work. Conversely, guitars coexist with synthesizers in a land of looping, effects pedals, and deliberate blurring of instrumental roles.
This contradiction provides an adroit series of juxtapositions, all laid out in spacious, gradually evolving instrumentals that take their time but deliver potently. Thus, at least in terms of influence, Lokai’s music owes as much of a debt to expansive experimental electronica as it does to post-rock.
Sleeper’s brand of dark instrumental electronica sports everything from electric guitars to vintage analog synthesizers to toys and gadgets; the LP even includes samples from Speak and Spell and Speak and Math! And although Behind Every Mask frequently flirts with ambient (or illbient) soundscapes, the use of front and center hip hop inflected grooves makes sure that the emphasis is on motion rather than stasis. Occasionally, Sleeper allows the proceedings to be shaped in oblique rather than linear constructions, which adds to the overall sense of deliriously uneasy, off-kilter music-making.
Ethan Ward (E-603) takes accumulating and juxtaposing samples (mash-ups) to the nth degree on his self-released second album Torn Up. Between original and borrowed snippets, Ward estimates some 500 samples are employed in the creation of the album.
To sample some of E-603’s handiwork, check out a chockfull MP3 of “Lights Out.â€
Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary (Modeselektor) joined forces with Sacha Ring (Apparat) to form the trio Moderat back in 2003; after putting out a 12†EP, they waited until 2009 to release a proper full length.
 Composer and electronic musician Tom Hamilton has been active for over forty years. Beginning his investigations with early analog synthesizers, he’s continued to explore the parameters of technology with instruments of his own devising. Developed during a residency in Italy in 2005, Hamilton’s “electronic harmony generator†is now his synth of choice. He deploys it in a mixed chamber setting on Local Customs, an album-length five-movement work.
Hamilton has appeared on more than sixty recordings, becoming primarily associated with Downtown, rather than Uptown, circles. But his music isn’t so easily pegged. Whereas much minimal electronica tends to limit the pitch palette, avoiding overt atonality in favor of an extended triadic vocabulary, Local Customs allows for a wide range of harmony. This includes Webernian pointillism as well as triadic synth pads and overlapping modal wind ostinati.
On “Corral,†points of stillness and tart intervals set against triadic underpinnings give one the sense of a slightly filled-in Morton Feldman. There are places, especially in the third movement, “Counterpoint Four,†where the gradual evolutions sound like Steve Reich’s phase patterns in slow motion. Noteworthy here are the low-register members of the ensemble, trombonist James Martin and bassist Terry Kippenburger, who keep up lithely with their wind section counterparts.
The final movement, “All the Mapping Shifted,†imbues the proceedings with a belated urgency; percussion interjects, while angst-filled intervals are articulated in the clarinet and flute. Disjunct melodies are given to each instrument in turn, while Hamilton’s generator provides a subliminal, yet oddly insistent, harmonic background. Local Customs is all the more interesting for its unusual place in the contemporary classical universe, bridging a range of playing manners and stylistic conventions to make a singular, satisfying, hybridized music.
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Visually stunning and musically engaging, Voltaic chronicles Björk’s 2007-8 concert appearances in London, Reykjavik, and Paris. The instrumental complement this time out features an all-female (all-Icelandic) brass section/choir, keyboards, and copious amounts of percussion. They are abetted by dazzling production values in Paris and London. The appearance in Reykjavik, however, is more intimate. A chamber music styled performance, the choir is augmented, harpsichord replaces many of the synths, and the use of beats is suitably subdued. Â
The new songs off of the studio LP Volta – “Earth Intruders,†“Innocence,†and the show-closer “Declare Independence†– are given spot-on performances, but also imbued with the crackling energy of a live setting.The old songs are recast for the band’s unusual instrumental complement, with stirring results. “Hunter†is thrilling and “All is Full of Love,†which juxtaposes supple brass choir harmonies with downtempo grooves, is a compelling reimagining. Björk herself is in fine voice, adding a bit of timbral heft to complement the brass accompaniment, but never compromising her trademark fluid phrasing.
Like many Björk offerings, Nonesuch has released this in several versions. I’m glad to have gotten the CD/DVD, so as to enjoy both audio and visual presentations from the tour. But there’s also an expanded boxed set, with LP, 2xCDs, and 2xDVDs.  In the case of Voltaic, perhaps more might be even better!
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