d_rradio: Seasons
Rural Colours

d_rradio (D. R. Radio, short for Death Row Radio) takes a Vivaldi-esque turn on its latest release, a beautiful four-track collection with each one named, of course, after a season. It's another fine release by the Hibernate sub-label Rural Colours in the likable three-inch CD-R format. In simplest terms, the tracks are orchestral in terms of musical character and hypnotic in their loop-like construction—strongly reminscent, in short, of both Ekkehard Ehler's Betrieb (Mille Plateaux, 2000) and d_rradio's own double-CD offering Leaves ( Symbolic Interaction, 2009) . Each of Seasons' pieces explores a different mood: “Autumn” is infused with a spirit of melancholy but one not bereft of hopefulness; “Winter” is suitably sombre in its withdrawn character; the gorgeous “Spring” exudes elegiac uplift through its every pore; and the pastoral “Summer” has a light-hearted spring in its quietly jubilant step. Throughout the nineteen-minute EP, strings are the dominant element, but woodwinds and piano appear too. The group's Facebook page describes d_rradio's music as graceful and mesmerizing, and of having “a subtle lightness of touch and a melancholic sense of hope,” and the description goes a long way towards capturing the tone of this lovely outing.

January 2011