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CLUETT, SETH - Objects of Memory

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: LINE line_048 Release Year: 2011 Note: Five pieces rec. 2006-2009 for different occasions by this US american sound artist, performer and photographer Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00 More Info "beneath the fabricating and universal writing of technology, opaque and stubborn places remain . . . hidden in customs, rites, and spatial practices . . . only fragments in language . . . like the deteriorating pages of a book” - Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life 1. objects in stillness for bassoon, viola, guitar, percussion, and four sine tones (2006). Clogs: Bryce Dessner, Rachael Elliot, Thomas Kozumplik, and Padma Newsome. 2. a radiance scored with shadow for amplified paper, bowed vibraphone, bass drum, and compressed air (2007). So Percussion: Douglas Perkins, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Lawson White. 3. a murmur which redoubles for three guitars, electric bass, and four sine tones (2006). 4. doleros (audio tourism at ringing rocks) reclaimed building materials, steel, baler twine, speaker cones, light, and 12.1-channel audio (2008). Catch Guitar Quartet: Wiek Hijmans, Seth Josel, Patricio Wang, and Mark Haanstra. 5. untitled (objects of memory) live performance at NYC Sound Festival, Centre d’Arts Plastiques Contemporains/Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France. Seth Cluett (b. 1976, Troy, NY) is an artist, performer, and composer whose work ranges from photography, and drawing to video, sound installation, concert music, and critical writing. Engaging the boundary between the auditory and other senses, his work is marked by a detailed attention to perception and to sound’s role in the creation of a sense of place and the experience of time. The apparent tranquility of Cluett’s work – at once gentle and un-nerving – is concerned with the rapidly shifting sensory landscape of technological development and urbanization." [Credits] "These works occupy a position between an expanded notion of composition and a gallery-based art practice. The content of the works presented on this disc produce a slow series of gestures that give the illusion of stillness amidst a texture of continually developing material. The central concern in all of these pieces (the three fully scored works, the installation documentation, and the live-performance) is the construction of a sound world that is able to be environmental rather than temporal, proceeding slowly enough that it might be explored without the anxiety that it will move away too quickly. Like much of my output, I am interested in providing the listener with material that allows for an active agency of perception and that affords the ability to move through the sound autonomously. Whether the work is gallery-based, conceptual, or created for a concert hall, I am interested in viewing simple, everyday actions at extreme magnification, acknowledging failure by amplifying impossible tasks, and exploring the role of memory in forms that respect the contract between the composer, performer, and listener." [Seth Cluett] www.lineimprint.com "Less productive is Seth Cluett in terms of releases, or perhaps they escaped my attention. Cluett's work is also minimal, but also more 'traditional'. By this I mean that sometimes his work deals with a variety of instruments and players. More like a classical composer that is. Take for instance 'Objects In Stillness', which is a Niblock like piece for bassoon, viola, guitar, percussion and four sine tones. The next two pieces are alike: minimal, classical, introspective and simply beautiful. The other two pieces here are much longer and don't seem to involve any traditional instruments. Yet this is no break with the previous three pieces. In 'Dolores' he uses 'reclaimed building materials, steel, baler twine, speaker cones, light and 12.1 channel audio'. While there is a soft percussive element to the music, there is also the low humming bass sound, that over the course of the piece changes towards a more mid-ranged sound and a bit louder. If anything, I was reminded of the music of Steve Roden here. Sine waves also play a big role in the final and longest piece 'Untitled (Objects Of Memory)', which also uses cassette dictaphones, circuit-modified portable cassette player and controlled feedback. Despite it being the longest piece, it seems to have the least sound information, but its an excellent piece. Almost alike Alvin Lucier, but just with that extra bit to make it more 'musical'. This could have been a fine (if not short) CD by itself. This CD may serve as a fine introduction in case Cluett is a new name for you." [FDW/Vital Weekly]