Andrew Pekler ~ Strings And Feedback
Andrew Pekler is an American relocated to Berlin, previously known for his work as Sad Rockets. The two recordings released subsequently under his own name (Station To Station and Nocturnes, False Dawns And Breakdowns on the ~scape label) have been interesting experiments in the melding of electronica with late night jazz samples. In its tangential feints and beatless incidence, Strings And Feedback represents quite a different approach. Gone are the ghosts of improvisation, to be replaced by the suspended shadows of Morton Feldman: the late composer’s work provides most of the source material for Pekler’s ten pieces. Perhaps due to its digital reconfiguring, the sound also suggests the image of Stockhausen’s electronic work rerecorded with acoustic instruments or – less frequently - Louis and Bebe Barron’s soundtrack for the film Forbidden Planet. At times tones eddy and shimmer like the surfaces of miniature oceans lapping against fictive harbour walls , at others harps and strings shimmer like storm-troubled reeds against inclement weather. Pekler’s digital tools are infinitely more flexible than the aforementioned pioneers yet it’s unclear what degree of progression has been achieved in the intervening 40+ years. Perhaps such a linear perspective verges on the ridiculous. To this listener music appears increasingly oceanic or, more appropriately in relation to this release, it assumes the aspect of an all-encompassing, ever-changing climate map. In a collaboration with the Stroer Duo, the American vocalist Howard Fine articulated the idea of radio signals escaping earth’s atmosphere and travelling ever deeper into space. Strings And Feedback sounds like some of those signals arcing back and becoming caught up in the stratosphere. Now pitted with comet dust and spooked by their long, dark journey Feldman’s sounds are the same and utterly transfigured.