andy graydon at bay

CONTACT _Con-3F2648541 \c \s \l Andy Graydon | At Bay | Winds Measure Recordings | wm06 | February, 2007
I like to imagine that on his first attempt at a mix of Cloister, the opening track on his At Bay release, Andy Graydon ran into bit rate problems that he liked better than the original sounds and decided to release the damaged mix instead. Whatever the case, the resulting insectile buzzes and blunted bell tones typify the overall sensibility of this release: precise, yet fraught with hazard.

Solid of Smoke arises from the interplay of voices that bring to mind organ, handbell, and triangle. Surroundings shimmers with overtones as well, this time reminiscent of car horns and an orchestra tuning up. Crystalline shimmers float freely throughout this collection, but are often rent by pops and hiccups that suggest not a seamless surface but an engagement of the digitally enhanced world we inhabit: porous, fragile, and inclined toward accidental beauty or even utter collapse. Perhaps this tension informs the title of the record…

At Bay maintains a general quiet around the edges that welcomes whatever inadvertent sounds occur in your listening space as part of the experience. Verite Entieres offers a sifting and shifting soundworld through headphones, and has that "Is that the TV next door?" flavor through speakers, even in a completely silent room; this is one of those releases you don't want to listen to in the car or on the subway, as you'll miss quite a bit of it.

On ZPE, suspended sound-fields of varying frequency and timbre crossfade with an elegant patience, taking their time to interact in unexpected ways. But it's refreshing that Graydon doesn't make the pitfall assumption that just because something is interesting, it'll automatically be interesting for fifteen minutes. These tracks last about as long as they should without dribbling into tedium.

The fuzz of Lossless grows plush as clods of earthen static congeal just beneath the surface, leaving a fitting metaphor of this album: it's a work of intimacy with both digital and organic realms. At Bay is electronic art by a human being.
–Mike Hallenbeck

Mike Hallenbeck is a sound artist and founder of the Wandering Ear netlabel.

At Bay is an incredible sonic experience built with grainy organic elements that drift around deep atmospheres and smart tonal structures, fading in and out through some almost inaudible episodes. Sometimes I wonder about the colors of music – At Bay sounds grainy white. The textures are sheer, subtle, sometimes harsh and needly, and in spite of the organic sense of the record, it's also very spatial at moments, like data and landscapes merged into some natural force named At Bay.

At Bay begins quietly with crisp textures, and then some droning force approaches like an enormous invisible tornado roaring on the white emptiness, shifting the perception of space, as if we were both inside and outside of a box being carried by the wind. The album continues, quiet and dark, with Cloister’s repetitive deep waves, somehow reminiscent of Debussy's La Mer.

Solid Of Smoke sets a completely different tone and it's one of my favorite pieces of this work. The piece is an intense cluster of sine waves and deep background drones, completely enveloping and poetic. A piece that gives the sonic experience a more subtle and crystalline twist.

After a glimpse of the ocean, we now dive right into it with Lossless. We listen to a roaring in the distance while grainy crisp sounds like damaged film set a nostalgic air to this immersion. Surroundings is a delicate and sheer goodbye theme, shy and remote, alternately cool and warm. I personally feel this is the climax of this work, where everything you heard before is gone, and you are making an entrance to the end. At Bay has a very strange ending, almost inaudible, like an aftermath of something very strong that just occurred: desolated and distant.

Listening to At Bay is like witnessing the conception and destruction of a small universe -- listen with headphones and in a quiet surrounding.
–David Velez

David Velez is an editor for Earlabs. He releases work as Lezrod on the Test Tube and Zymogen netlabels.

At Bay, sensitive and accurate, is an invitation to a narrative and introspective journey, like islets of memories where you should berth sometimes for your own experience. Blurring the frontier between dream and reality, At Bay confirms Graydon’s beautiful work in contemporary kinesthetic minimal music. Please listen carefully.
–Alex Navarro,

EKO netlabel, Paris