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BEGG, MICHAEL - Titan : A Crane is a Bridge

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Omnempathy OMCD09 Release Year: 2017 Note: award winning work by the Scottish composer =>: an impressive audio installation made on / with the gigantic Clydebank Titan crane in Scotland (for the Sonica Festival 2017), which served as performance space and instrument, for the composition; he used field recordings from the area and self build aeolian harps capturing the winds, vibrations and resonances on/of the crane, thus 8 immersive drone-pieces with lots of layers and variations were constructed... highly recommended !! Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00 More Info TITAN - WINNER of the New Music Scotland 2018 Award for New Electroacoustic / Sound Art Work. This original commission, for Cryptic Glasgow, premiered at the Sonica '17 Festival in Glasgow. Begg’s extraordinary electronic sound installation... with huge, swelling harmonies, occasionally building to moments of ecstatic beauty... its slow-burn, cumulative effect is one of uncompromising power and inevitable decay, both a celebration of enduring strength and a memorial to its demise The Scotsman Begg’s installation is perhaps the standout at Glasgow’s Sonica… The wheelhouse becomes the humming dark heart of the crane as Begg’s electronic enfolding and eroding of the raw sonic materials sets a rich and taut piece in perpetual motion… turning the iconic structure into a gently haunted compound of wind and noise. The Wire With Michael Begg’s instrumentation, the Titan Crane feels like a living creature. One that tells us an important story.. if only we listen. Ambient Blog Michael Begg makes architecture sing like no one before him. Stephen Fruitman, Igloo https://omnempathy.bandcamp.com/album/titan-a-crane-is-a-bridge "For TITAN: A Crane is a Bridge, sound artist Michael Begg enlists the gigantic, titular Titan crane of Clydebank in Scotland both as a performance space and as an instrument. In the windy, beefy lattice frames and oily joints of the towering device, Begg teases out all sorts of metallic resonances and ironclad drones. Over these, he layers his own gentle instrumental additions - to great effect. At times, it resembles ‘dark ambient’ music. Only actually good. A Sonica Festival 2017 commission, the work is available on CD through Omnempathy in a glossy Japanese digipak." [Norman Rec.] "By now there is quite a bunch of Michael Begg releases, twelve it seems, under his own name and as Human Creed and also from the group he’s a member of, Fovea Hex. A busy man, but he also finds time to create audio-visual installations and one of those was in the wheelhouse on to the Clydebank Titan, as part of the 2017 Sonic-a festival. That was quadrophonic, reduced to stereo (obviously) for the CD release. The music is made from field recordings in the area, as well as Aeolian harps Begg build over the years. The wind around the wheelhouse playing those harps is also at the foundation of the music. All of this is very ambient and as such it may seem odd (or at least I thought so) that the eight pieces are not very long; from a mere one-and half minute to six, but around four is the most usual. It’s good to see someone who believes less is more and not plays out his ideas too much and thus spreading it thin. In all of these pieces there is an endless amount of drone material, but of a lighter nature. Delicate and sparse, rather than full and dense. I had the impression that some of these pieces consisted of just a few sounds, rather than a multitude of sources. Begg’s music may be ambient and quiet, but it is not always very gentle, which is exactly how I love these things. He knows how to add a sharp edge to his sounds, almost as if he’s aware of the hole that he can fall into, the dangerous shady world of new age music. Begg stays safely away from that world with his ringing and singing overtones, like singing wine glasses and loops of obscured field recordings (in ‘It’s All Triangles’ for instance), topped with a fine spice of dark reverb and, as easy as that may sound, that’s all you need for great album by Michael Begg." [FdW/Vital Weekly]