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Papercuts by Jason Kahn and Jon Mueller (crouton 22)

Papercuts by Jason Kahn and Jon Mueller (crouton 22)

a review by Chris Rose of
release format Papercuts by Jason Kahn and Jon Mueller (crouton 22)

text

One of my earliest memories is of someone flicking through the pages of a book, and me laughing as the pages made a breeze which fanned my face. I'm reminded of this listening to "Papercuts", and realise that books and paper obviously have an atavistic power for many people - the smell, sight or sounds of old books, letters, newspapers, pictures.
It's not clear if this 18-minute recording built from the sounds of different kind of paper was made using books or letters or virgin blank stuff (the only credit is to "various grades of handmade and commercial paper"), but it manages to evoke all kinds of bibliophile memories.
The sensory appeal of the sounds (which range from a high pitched whine, almost like that of the human sensory system, the sound you get when you block out all others, chirping crickets, beating bird wings, slips, slaps and the flickering of turning pages) takes you back to letter writing, sketching, rifling through secondhand bookshops.
The piece builds until it sounds like fire, paper burning at that the famous 451°F, then the thing ends, almost, but not quite, with a the sound of a book shutting.
The disc comes, naturally, in a beautiful piece of heavyweight paper, folded like an envelope, the music inside a letter - who it is to depends on the listener.

Posted by Chris Rose at 12:47, 24 Apr 2004