ea balancing act with controled dynamics

Sometimes it seems that the line between silence and noise in thin, and this seems to be the case on Balancing act with controled dynamics.

EA is a NY based collective formed by Andre Gonçalves, Andy Graydon, Ben Owen, Gill Arnò, Richard Garet and Gil Sansón whose other solo and collaborative projects are really worthy to check out as well.

The score for Balancing act with controlled dynamics, as the title indicates it, is based on the dynamics (low, medium and high) that each performer uses. The lower the dynamics, the more time the performer can play, the higher the less time the performer would get to play.

Based on this rule they recorded a 28:31 piece that, as you might guess, has a diverse variety of tonalities and intensities, from almost inaudible moments, to very noisy and hard fragments. This rule applied to the overall piece, makes it particularly "dynamic" and articulated.

On the liner notes for this record (written by Andy Graydon) there is a description of what they call "guided improvisation", and I found particularly interesting how the "non playing" becomes a very important element for the experience, as the performance's silence and attention brings something to whatever the other performers are doing.

Balancing act with controled dynamics is a sonic experience that takes you to different places and times, like a sound journal of several dream-like situations like a singing performance on an odd shaped coliseum with a freaky strange reverberation (reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) or like becoming tiny and being able to loudly listen the rubbing of two foam toys fighting.

One of the things that I find more alluring about sound art and electro acoustic music, is that emotions happen differently than it occur in other genres: and the observed object becomes more important than the observer's current emotionality. Contemplation of sound is what Balancing act with controlled dynamics is all about, like if the listener and the non playing performer become 1.

This is a 100-copies edition, so go ahead and order your copy before it's too late. The package is hand printed and beautiful and makes Balancing act with controled dynamics an ever more treasurable object.

reviewed by David Velez
1/27/2007