PCRV Three Untitled Pieces — Somnolent Shelter Records

Three tracks here, from PCRV; all “untitled” and all around the twelve/thirteen minute mark. The packaging stakes an allegiance to the Fluxus movement, which I can’t pretend to be an expert on; but I know that it was very anti-art and very d-i-y. This, combined with the movement’s utilisation of mail art, makes it a clear (if sometimes lurking or unacknowledged) influence on contemporary d-i-y noise artists, labels, methodology and ethics.

So, with all this in mind, PCRV’s sounds are somewhat disappointing. The three tracks - “untitled number one”, “untitled number two” and “untitled number three” - are quite interchangeable and indistinct from each other. In fact, had the liner notes not stated that all three were improvisations, I would have assumed that they were different mixes, versions or explorations of the same recording. All consist of fairly low-level digital processing, on a bed of drone. These foundation drones pulse alway quite resonantly in places, and are possibly the most successful sounds on offer. On top of these, a variety of sounds twitch and dance; though, in fairness, its not the most colourful of palettes. There’s a lot of “computer babble”, with filtering and ring modulation leant on heavily; a lot of noise without any real abrasion, a lot of atonalism without any real dissonance. There’s no real richness to the sounds on offer; the recordings are somewhat characterless, as if they could be pulled and teased so much further. The overall tone of the pieces is essentially slow and austere, but the sounds themselves are often far from clinically austere; there’s none of the more high-end, precision processing that you might associate with someone like Florian Hecker. But, since there’s also none of the rawness or timbre of a more lo-tech, pedal-mangling approach, “three untitled pieces” often falls into the nether regions between both methods. Again, there’s a lack of character to the work.

Its not all doom and gloom; there are some sections where interesting tones are hit and allowed to play, and the ending of “untitled number one” has shimmering bell-type tones, before being consumed by white noise. But, overall, there is this lack of character to PCRV’s sounds. His set-up isn’t described in the liner notes, but there is a photograph of him with a violin; if this is indeed his source material, then he has very successfully removed any of its “violin” characteristics - but he has also removed any interesting detail, timbre or quality.