Pleq: Absorbed by Resonance
Tobias FischerNever once does absorbed by resonance surge into the limelight or press itself onto the listener; it is through the silence – rather than the music - surrounding / radiating / flowing from it instead that it establishes its presence, like micro-melodies in a slightly darkened room. Remarkable are the moments, when pleq does raise the volume: first, it will seem almost like a tiny mistake, like a case of negligence in defining the dynamics between tracks; and yet, within this fragile continuum, the brutal impact on the listener resulting from these instances represents a subversive move to thwart conventional listening habits – no worries, though, it never gets too much.
Pleq's ingredients are loops (sampled? self-performed? guitars?), recorded and/or sampled noises as well as reticent electronics and he uses them to create outwardly static, but in reality highly vivid and constantly varying miniatures; one could regard his approach as a continuation of the typical mille-plateaux sound, although the emphasis would need to be on the term „continuation“: sonic aesthetics are focused on warmth and coherency; disrupting noises serve as tiny hooks; rhythms are highly discrete, far more ambient than propulsive - a unison of noise and tone operating under the premise of not disturbing the subtle ambiance. Paradoxically, the relative importance of the two building blocks within this unison seems essentially inverted. Take for example „#6“, which works with a noisy loop and sounds like the lead-out groove of an old vinyl record, with the looped music somewhere far away in the distance, a warm, rotating pad and a few splinters of high-frequency electronics working their way forward, piercing the surface.
Especially because of its highly personal characteristics, this extremely beautiful work could easily be overlooked; really, absorbed by resonance would have an ideal vinyl-release. Although it has to be said: The artwork of the digital version is successful, too. In its own way, again.
By Hellmut Neidhardt
Homepage: Pleq
Homepage: mAtter Recordings
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2009-04-29