
I highly enjoyed last year’s “Light and Roundchair” from Kasyansky (Creative Sources 062), the first I’d ever heard his work. Now comes the equally intriguing, rather different “Floating Point”, based on pieces done for three dance companies. Not only are the sounds more overtly derived from field recordings but to a great extent the structure is more like film collage, briefly episodic and often discomfiting, layering elements heard at various sonic depths atop each other in a manner suggesting images in greater or lesser degrees of focus. There’s spare piano that pops in and out as well, single-noted and vaguely tonal, like a sliver of Feldman. The storm clouds of static from his earlier release still appear, but only momentarily as do scattered voices, dog barks, various weather-related phenomena and intimations of other “standard” instruments. Periods of silence or near silence fall into place throughout. Those who like a dollop of “music” with their field recordings will find a treat here.
Descriptive listing doesn’t really do the work justice however. It’s more the creative positioning of the sounds, the subtle psychological impact that they, so arranged, may or may not have on the listener. While of course this applies to any music, the sort of dream logic employed in works like this will succeed or not on the subjective associations made by the listener, whether or not the transitions ring true and the sounds chosen feel right. I found myself increasingly drawn in on each hearing, more readily summoning captivating visual images to mentally accompany this soundtrack. A fine album.
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- Май 21, 2007: Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly, Grundik Kasyansky – Floating Point, 2007
“About Grundik Kasyansky we a little more than about Lietterschpich, that he has three previous releases (Vital Weekly 524, 530 and 548) and that he plays feedback synthesizer, field recordings, theremin, samples and assemblage and here on ‘Floating Point’ one Fyodor Makarov plays toy concertina. The music is an ‘audio collage based on three works
- Сентябрь 1, 2005: Cyclic Defrost 12, Frogs, September 2005
Ok yep, a frog concept album from Israeli sound artists and electronic duo Grundik Igor Kasyansky and Slava Smelovsky. In fact frogs are mentioned in pretty much every song title, such as a frog gets over his fear of water and the old frogs dream. But why frogs? “Only frogs know,” says the cd tray,
- Октябрь 2, 2005: Aural pressure, Frogs
Being aware of, but having not heard their prior album on Stateart, this is my first introduction to this experimental duo from Israel.
Without so much as a reference point as to prior output, on this album
- Июль 13, 2006: Brian Olewnick, Bagatellen, Light and Roundchair, 2006, 13.07.2006
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- Август 31, 2006: Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly 548, “live journal 12.28.2005″
The best release of the three is however from a Russian musician living in New York: Grundik Kasyansky. He had releases on State Art (see Vital Weekly 424) and Creative Sources Recordings (see Vital Weekly 530). His instruments include a computer, small theremin, radios and feedback synthesizer, although he limits himself to the latter here.