noisepoetnobody — Concrete Vital

Concrete Vital is the latest work from noisepoetnobody- it was released on CD and in digital form by Scry Records. Behind the project is the experimental musician Casey Chittenden Jones, who is a well-known artist from the Seattle scene.

For almost 15 years now, Jones has been documenting and recording the collapse of civilization and our different ecosystems with a wide range of self-made instruments, synthesizers, field recordings and modular devices to express the need for creativity in the dying process. His previous works and collaborations, which are often associated with the genres of experimental, minimalism, noise, industrial and drone, have been published by Scry Recordings, Lens Records and Public Eyesore, among others. He also founded the Driftwood Orchestra, Seattle Dismal Fest, and is currently performing with Peter Keller in the "Dosenöffner" duo. 

The compositions on Concrete Vital can best be described as soundscapes with influences from Musique Concrète, Sonic Construction and modern field recordings. The tracks are sometimes improvised and play with the colors of different abstract soundscapes, environment-like textures and other sounds of a very experimental nature. 

Though-out Concrete Vital the pieces move slowly (and often quietly) forward, the sounds and their different sources have been given a lot of space and time to extract themselves from his instruments and devices. The tracks are simple, but focused and confident. Angular minimalist synthesizer textures interact with arrhythmically pulsating mechanical noises and in the background you can hear (or is it interpretation?) sounds of a string instrument. An interesting and maybe a little exhausting experience.

Sometimes I felt the whole thing seemed somewhat over-conceptualized, but nevertheless, the soundscapes of urban life on Concrete Vital are full of destruction and confrontations which makes the whole thing appealing enough.