Altered Zones

Australian composer Lawrence English’s “Frost’s Bitter Grip” could pass as a field recording from the imaginary borderland between ecosystems of meditative swells and ardent noise. The feelings of space and geography that the piece invokes are very intentionally realized, with English citing J.A. Baker’s The Peregrine, a naturalist account of the falcons from the very real landscapes of East Anglia, as the inspiration for the album that shares its name. The first listen yields the impression of an arrangement that is either floridly complex or disingenuously simple. Repeated listens hint that both could be true, though no single element emerges to blatantly dominate the composition. The video’s zoomed in falcons embody this tension as they slowly twist in and out of recognizable shapes, suspsended against unreal blue backdrops. --Luke Carrell, International Tapes

The Peregrine will be available on vinyl from Experimedia in October