Colin Andrew Sheffield, Signatures (Invisible Birds)

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Through his unique, non-digital manipulation of old field recordings, Colin Andrew Sheffield conjures forth an album of sounds we never pay attention to, the elemental ambient white noise beneath all the traffic, conversation, and things falling over of our daily lives.

The opening track sucks the listener into a vortex redolent of the atmospheric conditions inside a black hole. "Arise" follows with a greater intensity, which increases as it "rises", a huge but slightly uncalibrated ventilation fan wobbling on its axis. "Surrender" is like waking up in an airplane in the middle of the night, all the other passengers asleep, all light extinguished and that constant whoosh outside the fusilage the only sensory input being registered. As on any flight, the ear eventually acclimatizes it into a soft featureless music.

The half-hour long "Breath of Day" is a sacral commune, a huge pipe organ in a forest of redwoods - grandly meditative, Gavin Bryars in Californian woods. Its majestic and methodical pace is ocassionally sped up as the keys of the organ are more rapidly palpated, like the cardio-pulmonary system becoming excited by some insight emerging during contemplation before being assimilated and regaining its steady calm.

It´s a remarkable achievement, fascinating in concept and execution and ultimtely, most importantly, in the lasting impression it makes.

http://www.invisiblebirds.org