Marinos Koutsomichalis — Trevor Jones Studio Sessions Vol I

Marinos Koutsomichalis claims his music is about texture and qualities of sound, not expression.  Certainly, his textures are often as subtle and perfectly processed as the work of Aube or z'ev, high praise coming from me.  There is only very loose structure to the pieces, an important distinction from the often mathematical, precise compositional work of the aforementioned artists.  He admits this.  It sometimes leads to an awkward and discontinuous listening experience; your time is apparently not important to the artist, who also happens to be an incredibly patient, meticulous man.  To some, I suppose this merely means he is uncompromising.

This is the sort of album where complete silence, concentration and a good soundsystem are required.  If you have those, then the music becomes audible, though not necessarily listenable or enjoyable.  I find it impossible to listen to the whole album at one volume.  It is much of an experience?  To many, it will be pointless, because there is truly little human feeling to the sound.  In a way it is like standing in nature - the messages and moods you receive from the sounds are not easily interpretable.  Koutsomichalis wishes to express an existing acoustic environment, not express himself, and so there is nothing emotional to become immersed in except sound itself.  Said sound periodically proves unreliable here...  nice sounds thin back out into silence.  As if to prevent the listener from processing these sonic textures as a three dimensional space, the sounds often fade away as soon as they begin.  Harsh, obnoxious metallic ringing sounds, easy to create and much less harmonically rich, tend to dominate monotonously for minutes, as in the last of the 8 untitled pieces, one of the longest on the album at 11:43.  He consistently employs the use of but a single sound at once, likely because these may be unedited recordings.  All the sounds on the entire record could easily be categorized as 'formless metallic digital resonances'.  It's a very hollow sound, and these tracks certainly sound generative, and I mean that in a bad way.  I cannot hear the structure as anything but random, oftentimes.  And yet, I admit, the listening is mostly not boring to me, and it's because of the depth of Marinos' explorations into this particular timbral subclass.

Track 1 is certainly the most ambient and warm of all the tracks, and is thankfully a good 13 minutes long.  It has a wonderful swelling, ebb and flow sort of rhythm.  It's a transcendent experience, and easily my favorite track.

Coming off of the first, the second piece is a letdown, sounding quite a bit like someone is using a powersaw in the next room over.  I cannot perceive any change in the sound within its 7 minute duration; I can't help but tune it out.

Sound levels are incredibly low for first 3 tracks, but don't turn it up.  Come Track 4, the trebley shrieks bore through your skull!  It's still one of the two or three highlight tracks.  At least the volume catches your attention.  The rest of disk following the 4th track continues at a much louder volume, but continues in the sound of the first 3 tracks.  I am irritated by this - in order to fully enjoy the first track, especially, it must be played at higher volumes.  As the sounds become harsher later in the disk, they become less and less aesthetically pleasing and increasingly alienating.  Though the sounds are generally louder, it does not seem to be any kind of linear progression towards harshness.

Why would we listen to a man creating sounds completely free of structure or actual 'composition' when so many equally meticulous artists create themed pieces and real sound environments with sound as deep and subtle as this?  Well, it's true that the human brain will automatically attempt to organize in all circumstances, and Marinos' mind has certainly done so with this sound to an extent, but the results only occasionally rise above the status of 'perplexing' to become 'fascinating', and will to 99% of listeners be mostly just 'grating'.  All in all, if you are a fan of z'ev or Aube, seek this out and see if you like it.  It's possible this album is even more inaccessible than those artists, as it has a larger dynamic range and can become earsplitting completely without warning.  To other potential listeners - this is one of the most challenging albums I have listened to.  First ask yourself how far you're willing to go into the realm of sound for its own sake, and realize this is about as far in as it's possible to go.  Then, ask yourself if the timbres contained on this disk sound like the kind you could listen to and concentrate on for 45 minutes straight.  It is possible to enjoy this disk, and doing so is a fleeting, unique pleasure, but I can't in good conscience rate it highly since even within the context of highly experimental music it can be repetitive and tedious.  I would like to seek out his other work - I hear he's been recording at an ancient and historic river in Greece.  That sound palette would much better fit my taste.