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CD Feature/ Tate & Liles: "Without Season"

  Tobias

Two hugging teddy bears on the cover, a cat’s face on the CD, a title called ‘Without Season’ and a plastic, or is it ceramic(?), wheelchair-bound boy with the head of a fox: Visual impressions of an album, which lists Andrew Liles as the “Conductor”. So what to expect of a recording by this busy duo of musicians with a huge output of experimental music? Well, experimental it is and let’s just put it this way: This album is definitely worth listening to.

In his garden (which must be a real heaven!) Darren Tate taped some terrific field recordings. In Part One – of a total of five on this CD - we hear running water, and its sound makes you imagine a fresh, cool spring, dashing downhill over stones, finally ending its run in a quiet pond while birds are chirping away playfully and a mild wind runs through the trees, moving their leaves in a delicate underlying swoosh. There are buzzing insects, criss-crossing around, moving close only to get away in a hurry. All that accompanied by drones that sound like one continous tone of a bell, changing once in a while, sometimes harmonious and quieting, sometimes swelling to deep, almost threatening sounds. These drones are so very effective in making the listener more and more sensible for the sounds of nature! And yet, almost unexpectedly, they fade away, almost into non-existence, but they still are of important presence, while the sounds of living creatures take over. Only a short while later to be extinct by the drones again, which conquer the field and leave the listener in a dream and mantra-like condition.
This theme goes on through the recording in various variations. Disharmonic accordion sounds come in, changing their tune with the changes in the sounds of nature. Interestingly enough, Kathleen Vance is credited for the accordion play, while Darren Tate signs responsible for the ‘squeeze box’ play. Whatever you want to make of this (or the conductor-crdedit for Liles), we also find special thanks to Mitchell, who “thought”, and Potter, who “acted”.
But let’s get back to the music. While parts three and four feature the underlying themes which we looked at before, part five is really outstanding in its introduction of (yes, that’s right!) a waltz. The accordion – or was it the squeeze box(?) –  performs short-cut harmonies set in the waltz rhythm, accompanied by piano tunes, that refuse to join in the rhythm, but produce underlying, slow melodic chords. This creates a truly upflifting atmosphere, and to me it is the ultimate irony behind these recordings, which is already hinted at in the credits.

Really, this feels to me like frolicking around with the oh-so-serious approaches many people hold. This recording prooves that there is a lot of space for relaxation and enjoyment. Just let your feelings take charge and allow yourself to laugh about what you may encounter (even if it’s only you who thinks it’s funny!). This piece is great, especially in the very sense I’ve just described. Thanks to Darren Tate and conductor Andrew Liles, as well as all people envolved in producing this fine music, we all can finally smile when listening to experimental music.

By Fred Wheeler

Homepage: Twenty Hertz Recordings
Homepage: Andrew Liles