Christopher McFall — The Body As I Left It

The Body As I Left It is the 2010 release from Kansas Citys’ Christopher McFall.  To those not familiar with McFalls work, it is an intriguing mix of analog and digital sounds.  To be more precise McFall uses analog field recordings, old phonographs and various instruments and then rerecords these sounds through digital programs.  While it’s not a practice that hasn’t been done before, here it is executed effortlessly.

Within a scant 37 minutes and 7 tracks he is able to develop a world full of curiosity and antiquity.  The curiosity part comes from the sounds we hear.  They hum, buzz, hiss and churn and we just don’t know where they are coming from.  Yet add the various rhythmic percussion or serene piano pieces and it creates a dreamy if not ominous atmosphere.  The skillful production highlights the scratchy somewhat static induced ambient sounds that give each song an antique effect.  Combine to that recordings of thunder, chiming bells, footsteps and shallow breathing and it makes for an eerie if not surreal ambiance.

Christopher McFalls strength lies in his knowledge of timing and place.  Each sound is positioned together like an intricate machine.  Yet within this machine is an organic feel, and as much a part of the inner workings as the digital parts.  To that end it seems McFalls own natural environment is interlaced firmly to his work producing a soundscape that is whimsical and unsettling