Bloxham Tapes are delighted to present the label's 35th release, 'An Act of Surrender' by London-based electroacoustic composer and musician THOMAS STONE.
Thomas's practice focuses on live performance, reconciling disparate influences such as his tinnitus, physical endurance, false memories, the physical effect of sound, séance, bass music and 20th-century composition. His influences include the chamber works of Galina Ustvolskaya and Dmitri Shostakovich, and the experimental techno of acts such as Emptyset and Pan Sonic.
Refined through presentation in various resonant spaces – from churches to a disused water tank; Cornish coastal caves to the hull of a ship – Thomas's compositions use contrabassoon and sampling devices as oscillators for his snare drum. Blurring the boundaries between acoustic and electronic sound sources, his post-classical / post-techno soundscapes use the relatively ugly means of long tones, dissonances and cyclic rhythms to reach moments of austere, fragile beauty.
"The genesis for this new work came from discussion with the visual artist Harrison Pearce,"explains Thomas. "I was developing a sound to become a sonic representation of a physical movement within one of Harrison's kinetic sculptures. The slow descending glissando is acoustically impossible on the contrabassoon – but achievable in conjunction with my live electronics set up. A key element in my compositions is how this electronic augmentation creates, or perhaps frees, an almost alter-ego presence, and I enjoy the tension created by deciding how much of this creeps through.
"Themes of transference and oppositional dualities are present in all of my work, manifesting literally by using my contrabassoon and drum machine as oscillators to drive sympathetic vibrations in my snare drum. Setting the acoustic against electronic, the dynamic against the static, dissonance against consonance.
"I wanted to explore what giving into this 'other' presence – maybe a coercive or higher force – meant. Not necessarily religious surrender, but acknowledging something ritualistic in the effort to yield. In this case surrender isn’t a negative connotation – with 'An Act Of Surrender', I was interested in whether surrender is active or passive; whether you are consumed by this ‘higher force’ or can exist within it."
Resistance is useless. Surrender to 'An Act Of Surrender'.
credits
released December 9, 2022
Composed, performed and recorded by Thomas Stone.
Mastered by Antony Ryan at RedRedPaw.
Recommended limited vinyl reissue of the classic Bloxham Tapes cassette from Alison Cotton, courtesy of Cardinal Fuzz/Feeding Tube, available directly from the artist. Bloxham Tapes
Thought LEADER & Thought PARTNER: Bloxham Tapes' recording artist Greening Lambourne's limited, home-dubbed cassette editions cater for all your "Melody In The Murk (TM)" needs. Bloxham Tapes
The new album from electroacoustic composer Jeremy Young is draped in a sense of mystery, tones flickering gently, like an old home movie. Bandcamp New & Notable May 9, 2021