Articles
2007 Ten Favourite Labels
Backtracking Greg Davis
Shackleton Interview

Albums
John Luther Adams
Joseph Auer
Commix
Dartriix
Floratone
Furniture
Shuta Hasunuma
Richard Hawley
Hologram
Icarus
Kiln
Kobol
Labradford
Last Days
M83
Mai
Darren McClure
Near the Parenthesis
David Newlyn
Objekt4
OK Ikumi
Ontayso
Wendel Patrick
Phon°noir
Pocahaunted / Robedoor
Poostosh
Prefuse 73
Quosp
Rapoon
The Retail Sectors
Skull Disco
Socos
Supersilent
Tigrics
Trentemøller
Zuydervelt / Baars / Veld.

Compilations/Mixes
Airport Symphony
Devil in the Detail
Dinky
EXPANSION | contraction
Funckarma
Little Darla v. 25
One Five Zero
Playgroup / Alter Ego
Signal Path
Soul Jazz Singles
U-cover Mix 03 [IDM]
Ricardo Villalobos
We Are All Cotton-Hearted
Well Deep

3"/ 7"/ 10"/ 12"/ EPs
Basic Unit
Bodycode
Kit Clayton & Sutekh
Dartriix
Ditch
INKlings
Insanic4
Lackluster
Najem Sworb
Ontayso
Sutekh
The Tamborines
Telafonica
Zainetica

VA: Airport Symphony
ROOM40

Airport Symphony is such a brilliant concept, one wonders why no one thought to do it sooner. After all, many of us share a fascination with the relatively strange universe associated with air travel—not just the deafening sounds the planes themselves produce but the reverberant potpourri that echoes throughout the terminals: the bustle of the check-in counter, the cacophonous babble at arrivals, the muffled announcements that echo throughout the spacious corridors. Add to that the wealth of harried activity that constitutes the daily airport experience (excitement and anticipation, yes, but anxiety—for some, debilitating—and disorientation too) and you've got the ingredients for a potentially transfixing listening experience.

ROOM40 manager Lawrence English compiled source recordings made in and around Brisbane Airport between March and June 2007, and then handed them off to an A-list of sound artists—Richard Chartier, Tim Hecker, Francisco López, Stephan Mathieu, Taylor Deupree, Fennesz, and others—for their unique treatments of the material. Interestingly, many pieces (Deupree's “Fear of Flying” and Dale Lloyd's “Airs For Beacons / Signals For Ports,” for instance) opt for restrained quietude, with the omnipresent possibility of violence and death treated more as an undercurrent, if present at all. The planes assume a rather industrial character in Camilla Hannan's “Double Glazed” and Ulrich Krieger's “Noise-Pollination,” and soar over blurry gleam in Tim Hecker's dronescape “Blue Ember Breeze.” It's not all easy listening. In David Grubbs' “The Chimney Swifts,” distant plane noises first recede into silence and then re-appear, at every moment threatening to advance, and planes fly so closely overhead during Francisco López's “Untitled # 203,” one almost feels as if one is being strafed. The coup de grace is Stephan Mathieu's “Lux-Scan,” twenty-four minutes of celestial tonal drift whose every moment exudes that inimitable Mathieu touch (amazingly, the first conventional plane sound arrives twenty minutes into the piece).

December 2007