Overemphasizing the electronic aspects in a mixed source composition can result in a tragic error sometimes, the major risk factor being an excessive similarity to other pieces and, on the contrary, the danger of transforming the whole into some sort of mutation of a Playstation game soundtrack. The alternative is usually a release based on pure or slightly treated field recordings; but that method, too, has predictably begun to include big-time commonplaces, albeit pleasurable ones (pouring rain, forest birds, people’s chat in the streets and the sea’s wash are often a great listen but – come on – how long have we been hearing them now?). Speaking of fairly enlightened post-precursors, Jos Smolders’ late 80s debut - Freebasing A For Is Me - was, in the author’s reminiscence, “built as an abstract expressionism sound sculpture”. After twenty years or so - and various records dedicated to the full exploitation of a single idea down to the bare minimum - Smolders decided to go back to the origins.
At over 67 minutes, Gaussian Transient is a long album even for this genre, requiring patience to investigate its most secluded corners. Yet it is also easily describable as a concurrence of environmental situations and more atypical inspections (including what the composer calls “the intestines of a harmonium”). I tried it in several occasions - same setting, different hours of the day - varying the reproduction level and taking into account dissimilar external features joining the music. The dynamic range explored by Smolders, which goes from the almost inaudible to the reasonably consistent, makes sure that we’re forced to actively contribute to the experience, either via the intuition of what’s happening in the remote background of a quasi-silence or by feeling sheltered by a sense of familiarity: that, for example, materializing when the classic whooshed clangor of a distant train revived the memory of characteristic nocturnal occurrences at some stage in my adolescence’s sleepless nights, spent in a summer house not far from a railway.
This means that, as it often happens in this type of outing, the success of the record mainly depends on the fulfillment attainable by listening to a largely recognizable “something” for the umpteenth time. The small amount of processing applied to the material is, mostly, only a complement in this case; the work remains, again in the words of its creator, “just what it is”. From this observation angle, a definitely well-crafted, functional sonic artifact.
~ Massimo Ricci
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