Peter Orins — Happened By Accident

Peter Orins is a French drummer, percussionist, and composer with a foundation in the avant-garde sound art of minimalism and jazz. This is his second release experimenting with randomness and factors of chaos theory within the application of recordings and improvisation. But unlike his previous release, which focused on electronics, this is a collection of acoustic recordings...done mostly using a small drum kit and some hand percussion instruments. Although you really would not know from the recordings that a drum kit was used unless you read the liner notes.

Happened By Accident is a six-part collection of recorded improvisations using random percussion and a very nice microphone.. in fact, the microphones used might be the star of this release. ..the sounds captured are crisp and precise from crackling from pushing down on drum heads or scraping the bottom of a stick across a symbol..to rim playing with fingernails and the stroking of a bowl bell (..and these sounds are enhanced even more so in headphones).

I felt that these six tracks were very well recorded, nicely capturing of some improvisational happenings…as the title suggests.. “lets record that happening and see what we get by accident.” and these tracks do have some awesome  bites of neat sounds….but the composition aspect of these tracks really wasn't there for me. These pieces were exactly as promised in the press release “His approach focuses on chance, on the uncontrolled via small accidents, acoustic interactions between objects, percussions, resonances and sympathies due to certain frequencies or vibrations. “ and each of part of this seemed to start the same... with a menacing drone, and then descend into exploration with whatever was under the microphone at the moment to distinct a new part of the overall composition.. and then ending the same.. but just ending .with no closure or rounding of the “piece”.. I found these recordings to be more like field recordings ..or studio experiments rather than actual compositions. I think Part four was my favourite.. it was heavy on the cymbal scraping sounds and I like those....although they all appear to be fully improvisations with no real planning as far as individual tracks are concerned .. except for the final cut “Having Never Written A Note For Percussion “ which is cover of a composition by James Tenney from 1971...and this track stands out as an actually well thought out excursion into controlled percussive composition executed with solid respect for the original

This album features a lot of very interesting SOUNDS.. it's very meditational if you close your eyes and let it take you away.. it's also very easy to forget that its playing if you get distracted & move away from the speakers.. the recordings are quiet.. but intense and fun if you are into arty noise.