A lovely, even dazzling solo recording by Melbourne-based guitarist Gulbenkoglu, “Points Alone” offers five extremely varied tracks that take the guitar’s natural resonance as a starting point and proceeds outward from there.
The first point made is possibly the most abstract and a gorgeous, open soundscape it is. Sandy swishes, guitar-body clicks, severe string plucks—all laid out in a quasi-episodic manner, with much silence between, as though turning pages in an obscure photo album. A deep hum, a crackle, silence, crisp chitters that close the piece—there’s a remarkable variation in texture, volume, timbre and spatial placement, each sound a surprise as it emerges from the darkness beyond the last. One of Point Two’s main elements seems to be Gulbenkoglu blowing across, into, against different parts of his instrument and closely miking the results. Again, there are stretches of silence but I think I can just pick up some breathing back there. As I’m concentrating on that, there’s an abrupt and jolting double-tap followed by sustained (circular?) clattery chafing. As in the first track, the sequences are placed in sonic space with great care, the silences as present as the noise. The rustling that ends the piece (that is, before almost a minute of silence) is hauntingly beautiful.
The third point begins and remains in an entirely other realm, that of the high-pitched, sine-like tone, though there’s a grain to it that betrays its origin in a guitar instead of an oscillator. It runs a couple of minutes, pauses (faint, very faint scrabblings in the background) then resumes, carrying a waver that provides the tone greater urgency and, after another couple of minutes, concludes the work. Structurally somewhat similar to Sachiko M’s recent solo work, there’s something attractively blocky about the two-step plus silence formation, an ungainliness that nicely counterweighs the relative purity of the sounds.
The next track is quite brief, consisting of strongly struck, bell-like notes with overtones, played singly as if in a procession, the most overtly guitar-ish sounds to be found on this disc. It leads into the final, lengthiest point to be made and, for me, the highlight of this generally fine release. Essentially a drone, Gulbenkoglu weaves a thread that wonderfully combines the sweet with the sour, a fairly tonal taffy that nonetheless is laced through with harsh lines, slightly abuzz, as though certain pitches are causing sympathetic vibrations from nearby metals. As I’ve often found to be the case with much recent work out of Australia, the spatial sense is entirely immersive, the strands as distinct as they are recognizably of a whole, a delicious paradox. The amount of detail is vast and, while it really just sits there and pullulates, the listener has the strong sense of movement and change. And, clocking in at about 11 minutes, it’s of absolutely perfect length; one of my favorite tracks of the year.
Excellent disc—need to hear more from this fellow.
http://impermanent.info/recordings/
Posted by Brian Olewnick on October 14, 2005 5:59 PMFunny, this one didn't do much for me first & second time round. Time for another listen!
Posted by: Dan Warburton at October 14, 2005 9:53 PMI'm with you on this one Brian, I really liked this. The drone track at the end initially disapponted me following the intricacies of the earlier pieces, but after a few listens I have come to agree with you, it has a real immersive feel to it, just a drone, but plenty to listen to in there.
I've decided Australia is the new Japan :)
Posted by: Richard Pinnell at October 15, 2005 4:20 AM. . . and music is the new football, laptop is the new saxophone, uranus is the new jupiter, BO is the new Chanel, 7-Up is the new vodka, penthouses are the new basements, women are the new men, democracy is the new authoritarianism, hats are the new overcoats, cheese is the new onion, ad infinitum and, needless to say, ad nauseam.
All this pointless newness is dizzying. Think I'll go have a lie down.
Posted by: Brian Marley at October 15, 2005 9:44 AMLying down is the new standing up... ;)
Posted by: Richard Pinnell at October 15, 2005 10:33 AMAlas, almost certainly.
Posted by: Brian Marley at October 15, 2005 10:34 AMAin't life complicated?!
But, luckily, complication is the new simplicity.
:-)
Posted by: Brian Marley at October 15, 2005 10:47 AMAnd as snappy a dresser as Brian Olewnick may be I don't think he stands a chance of following in the footsteps of Chanel....... ;)
Posted by: Richard Pinnell at October 15, 2005 11:21 AMMuch depends, surely, on whether you mean Coco Chanel, the swanky dresser and scent-monger, or Cocoa 'The Clown' Chanel, notorious hit man for the mob.
Actually, never having met Brian - hello, Brian! - I'm just guessing.
Funny the picture you can build up of someone even from such paltry clues as their writing. A friend of mine absolutely adored Apollinaire until he saw a photograph of him - a recently trepanned fatty. He'd had a hopelessly romantic image of Apollinaire, thought he probably looked something like a Gallic version of James Bond. After seeing the photo he couldn't bear to read Apollinaire's poems. Took him ages to get over it.
So, based solely on his reviews, I imagine that Brian Olewnick is on the tall side, lean as a whippet or a Tour de France cyclist, dark hair (possibly black), no spectacles (and not out of vanity), given to wearing hats (pork pie and borsalino) but only outdoors or while soaking in the bath, partial to double capaccinos without sugar, unfailingly kind to animals, a family man, father of eight doting children (one of whom will run for Congress), licensed to carry a gun, not rich except in spirit, likes skiing, has never dug a grave, was New Jersey Arm-Wrestling Champion of the Year 1998 (which, out of modesty, he doesn't like talking about), etc.
Until I meet Brian, this is the splendid picture I will have of him.
Posted by: Brian Marley at October 15, 2005 12:00 PMPosting to Bags is the new silence.
Posted by: Michael Anton Parker at October 15, 2005 12:46 PM--So, based solely on his reviews, I imagine that Brian Olewnick is on the tall side
Correct. 6'2"
--lean as a whippet or a Tour de France cyclist
Yeah, when I was 16.
--dark hair (possibly black)
light brown
--no spectacles (and not out of vanity)
sorta--contact lenses. My vision sucks, though.
--given to wearing hats (pork pie and borsalino)
Don't own a hat. Hate them!
--partial to double capaccinos without sugar
Close enough
--unfailingly kind to animals
To be sure.
--a family man, father of eight doting children (one of whom will run for Congress)
Um, father of one dog, unlikely to run for Congress.
--licensed to carry a gun
Har.
--not rich except in spirit
Dunno.
--likes skiing
Skied once in my life. Liked it, didn't pursue.
--has never dug a grave
How did you know?
--was New Jersey Arm-Wrestling Champion of the Year 1998 (which, out of modesty, he doesn't like talking about), etc.
Again, close enough. New Jersey Crossword champion a couple years ago.
But enough about you, how about me?
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at October 15, 2005 1:32 PMSorry, Brian, I don't know anything about me.
Posted by: Brian Marley at October 15, 2005 1:36 PMYour hair is most certainly not light brown!
Posted by: walto at October 16, 2005 8:29 AMThat infamous photo of me and Nanook says otherwise (well, plus some fetching, Reed Richards-esque grey on the sides)
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at October 16, 2005 8:45 AMAs we found out at ErstQuake, loud is the new quiet.
Posted by: Alastair at October 16, 2005 9:49 AMWho's writing the ErstQuake review for Bags? I'm really anxious to hear about it and it's been a few weeks already, not to say I don't feel bad for not having my High Zero review done yet, which was the same weekend (sadly). The silence here is strange given the strong level of interest in that stuff among Baganauts...
I think Richard's working on one in the handful of seconds per day left over from his Jerman obsession/immersion.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at October 16, 2005 11:21 AMAir is the new reed.
Posted by: Michael Anton Parker at October 16, 2005 1:03 PM"Who's writing the ErstQuake review for Bags? I'm really anxious to hear about it and it's been a few weeks already, not to say I don't feel bad for not having my High Zero review done yet, which was the same weekend (sadly). The silence here is strange given the strong level of interest in that stuff among Baganauts..."
there are four full-length reviews in the works, besides all the discussion on IHM and JC afterwards. Steve Smith for the Wire, Hank Shteamer for Signal to Noise, Richard for here, Alastair Wilson for Paris Translatlantic.
I'd be surprised if any of them will be as insightful as Joe Panzner's (linked to below), simply because Joe was the most familiar of any of those five with the range of music/musicians presented in the fest (in fact, Joe's duo with Mike Shiflet, Scenic Railroads, was the only group we invited that declined our invite, because Mike recently moved to Japan):
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1889
Posted by: jon abbey at October 16, 2005 1:29 PMYes its in the works, slow progress due to the aforementioned obsession/immersion, a 70 hour week, ill health and general procrastination. Hope to have it finished in the next couple of days though.
And no, it won't come even close to Joe's beautiful prose, a great piece of writing.
Mike I could use some help setting it up with pictures included if you are able?
Posted by: Richard Pinnell at October 16, 2005 3:29 PMYes, I just read Joe Panzer's piece and it's beautiful writing rich with insight and detail. It was a great pleasure to read and I recommend it to everyone...
Richard, gotcha covered through private email...
Posted by: Michael Anton Parker at October 16, 2005 3:49 PMMy review is at the printers, as it were. My only worry about all the reviews I've seen so far (mine included) is that too much space is taken up in description of the sounds of the individual sets rather than more in-depth analysis. Is it a sign of the novelty of the music that we still feel compelled to give blow-by-blow accounts of every set?
Jusr read Joe Pazner's review for the first time. Nice.
Posted by: Alastair at October 16, 2005 4:09 PMPanzner. Sorry.
Posted by: Alastair at October 16, 2005 4:17 PM"My review is at the printers, as it were."
And will be appearing "in print" on November 1st.
"My only worry about all the reviews I've seen so far (mine included) is that too much space is taken up in description of the sounds of the individual sets rather than more in-depth analysis."
Well, it's not too late to add a few paragraphs, Alastair :)
"Is it a sign of the novelty of the music that we still feel compelled to give blow-by-blow accounts of every set?"
Could be reflection on the journalist's own experience, or lack of it, of course; but there are two kinds of blow-by-blow accounts, it seems to me: one where you describe the music itself (he did that and then they played that - which I find pretty dull unless it compares the live music to something else I'm likely to know, an existing release by the same group or whatever.. eg I'd be interested to know how Rowe & Nakamura's ErstQuake set compared to Weather Sky) and the other incorporating less directly musical detail / local colour (Rowe's laptop crashed, Colley ran off stage looking embarassed etc).
Revisiting this release, which made my Top 10 of 2005. Any Gulbenkoglu news, releases, activities, etc?
Posted by: Jesse at December 21, 2007 3:05 PMRevisiting this release, which made my Top 10 of 2005. Any Gulbenkoglu news, releases, activities, etc?
Posted by: Jesse at December 21, 2007 3:11 PM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................