Gilles Aubry — The Amplification of Souls( CD/ book set)

I’m reviewing a digital version of an apparent tome of a package: a cd with accompanying eighty-page book. The cd contains two long tracks and the book contains an interview with Gilles Aubry, an essay and assorted photographs and texts. The subject of all this work is, to crudely summarise, the sonic environment of Christian charismatic churches; as recorded in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The interview and essay are, in places, overwhelmingly academic; whilst the cd is, somewhat against all odds, equally dry.

The first track, “The Amplification Of Souls”, is a thirty-minute collage of material recorded in and around the churches Aubry visited. The core of the work is vocal: conversations, preaching and glossolalia (speaking in tongues); often distorted through PA equipment. Alongside these, street sounds, drones and microphone feedback are woven in. Despite the undoubted energy of the preachers and their congregations, the piece is surprisingly unaffecting. The raw sources are, essentially, all cut from the same cloth and thus very limited; with no apparent processing, as well as Aubry’s deference to the material as is, the ears become fairly bored, fairly quickly. The second, longer piece, “Amplified Souls”, is a “straight” recording of a church meeting. I say “straight”, because the track is constructed from the outputs of the PA system, combined with a roving microphone directed by Aubry - so its not a static sound-field. The energy, here, is greater than that of the first track; but, regardless, still fails to move me. The strains of the PA certainly make for some distressed sounds - and the shriek and babble of the glossolalia will be fascinating to those who’ve never heard such things - but, again, my ears tire quickly. As with many field recordings, the sounds document a specific time and place and… then what? Then, the words come in.
 
As I’ve probably said before, a close friend of mine, heavily involved in field-recording, once said to me (I’m paraphrasing): “Ah, field-recordists love their words…”. “The Amplification Of Souls” comes with words aplenty. As mentioned above, their tone and content mark the academic interests of the project, with several passages that require careful reading and attention. A proper response to the text is beyond the bounds of this review, so instead I will pick on one aspect of particular interest: “Aubry…suggests correspondences with ”first-world” noise music aesthetics.”. I think that there are clear comparisons and resonances to be recognised, between the recordings and “noise music”; but I also think they’re rather cheap and over-played. In terms of the recordings themselves, you might as well compare them to “rock music”, “live soul bootlegs” or “karaoke night at the local pub”. Essentially, we’re talking about distorted mics and mild feedback. The link is there to “noise music”, but it seems a stretch. In terms of the church “performances” that are being recorded, the accompanying essay by Johannes Ismaiel-Wendt talks briefly about the deliberate creation of “noise” by performers. Once again, a true point; but to then extend it to “”first-world” noise music aesthetics” is, as before, difficult. We all like making these comparisons and links, but in this case I think the neatness of the comparison is wrongly alluring and fashionable. (Said passage also concludes with an odd section which contrasts the album’s black preachers with white sound-art/gallery aesthetics in a racial light - its unclear what’s to be gained from that.)
 
I’m normally of the mind, that if an album comes with a text “explaining” it, the sounds should be kept and the text chucked. Here, perhaps, the reverse is a more enticing suggestion. The cd may interest you, but I frankly found little in it. The book, however, contains interesting discussion and thoughts on field-recording, “noise” and, of course, Christian charismatic churches. Ismaiel-Wendt’s essay deserves greater time and attention than I have been able to give it - and indeed, my criticisms above should be taken more as avenues for discussion, rather than outright “criticisms” - and would interest many of you. As a brief concluding point, the most obvious (and interesting) reference for “The Amplification Of Souls”, in genre terms, would be Power Electronics - though the comparison would best run in the opposite direction, measuring P.E. against the preachers…