Ekkehard Ehlers/Franz Hautzinger/Joseph Suchy - Sound Chambers

Ekkehard Ehlers/Franz Hautzinger/Joseph Suchy
Sound Chambers
Staubgold 049

On the one hand, it seems a bit unfair to judge a disc containing music meant to be heard in situ, as ambient music designed for a specific location, under specific circumstances. Then again, here it is, presented as an independent document so one plays it as it lays whatever the misgivings. “Sound Chambers”, recorded in September 2003 and intended to be deployed in a park filled with a “geometrical configuration of hedges” at the Museo Serralves in Portugal, begins in beguiling enough fashion with soft, dripping sounds and thin washes of hiss supporting long, gentle trumpet tones. As the hisses spread into thicker slabs of guitar-like drones, one is hard-pressed not to recall Jon Hassell’s Fourth World investigations of the late 70s and early 80s though here, especially near the beginning, there’s a greater undercurrent of unrest and agitation (often supplied by Ehlers’ introduction of staticky sounds) and far less of a tropical feel. However, Hassell had enough fascinating personal idiosyncrasies (like his vocalized trumpet) and an obsessive character that served him well. Those qualities are, unfortunately, lacking here.

Ostensibly improvised, there’s enough of an episodic character to the developments that I wonder if there wasn’t some degree of sketching out beforehand (or perhaps reconstructed post-production). The second track, for instance, appears like a storm cloud, the music suddenly becoming quite dense, replete with thunderclap-like explosions and multiply-echoed trumpet. It’s this seemingly imagistic trend, which continues for the disc’s duration, which weakens the recording and sends it teetering perilously close to the shallower waters of gauzy ambience. It certainly never recedes enough to imagine it disappearing into its intended surroundings; each musician’s contributions tend to be up-front and, if not generally pyrotechnic, pretty attention-drawing. Hautzinger plays in a much more post-Miles fashion than I’d guess most of his listeners are familiar with (actually, his playing sometimes sounds eerily reminiscent of Chet Baker’s work with Terry Riley from the early 60s, especially when looped), Ehlers seems not to be above the occasional electronic splooge that recalls early Moog effluvia and Suchy’s guitar often finds itself just this side of Frisell. While this combination is not entirely unpleasant, it does come off as rather lolling, if not lazy and the listener’s interest begins to flag when, after the first several tracks, you realize that you’ve heard all there is to hear and, short of vacantly grooving to the plush vibe, there’s not going to be much coming down the pike to distract you or cause you to focus.

Again, there’s a kind of attractiveness in all this; it goes down quite easy. But you’re left with little impression afterwards and not little enough impression to guess that it would work successfully filtered through and around those hedges. Neither ignorable nor worthy of very close inspection, “Sound Chambers” ends up being a bit of a frustrating listen, the more so considering the caliber of its participants. Ear candy, yes; lasting nutritional value, I don’t think so.

~ Brian Olewnick