It seems appropriate that Cronica’s 100th release should be something that’s as unique and as arty (for wont of a better word) as Arturas Bumšteinas’ ‘Gamelan Descending a Staircase’. Its title is a reference to Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 classic modernist painting ‘Nude Descending a Staircase’, while its composition and formulation – a development of a surround-sound performance / sonic exhibition using a large collection of Indonesian Gamelan orchestra instruments (which resemble lidded cooking pots) – corresponds with the avant-garde associations forever tied to Duchamp.
It’s an intriguing work. The album consists of a single track with a running time of some fifty minutes (the download includes an additional track in the form of the 12-minute ‘Sad Young Man on a Train’, but lacks the magnificent gatefold cover of the CD release).
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Chanking chimes clatter and clang, rhythms fleetingly conglomerate and disperse. Moments of charming musicality flicker and fade into discordance, and the track gradually shifts in tone and texture. Incidental sounds – drones, hums, clattering percussion and crashing gongs – add dimensionality to the sound as it transitions to a blunt metallic clang by the 40-minute mark, the soft tones having shifted toward abrasion. The piece finally resolves with a diminishment, and finally, slowly, a dissipation, and, ultimately, silence.
Arturas Bumšteinas – Gamelan Descending a Staircase Online
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