John Wyness - The Maker [Gruenrekorder - 2011]Comprising one of four works in a series entitled Centre and Edge (curated by the heady Gruen label), The Maker explores the ever-curious nature of spaces. In particular, this series inspects the intersection of man-made and natural spaces. The object of this pastiche of field recordings is to “defy linear time” through the observation of the “vertical relationships” between these two disparate kinds of spaces (artificial vs. natural). Throughout its ever-evolving 42 minute duration, Wyness depicts a strange landscape of unidentifiable yet familiar sound environments (the label site is kind enough to enumerate some of these for us). The elusive mastery of these recordings lies in their everyday-ness, which without the aforementioned thematic information, could be mistaken for a synthetically produced laptop drone piece. All are exalted once placed into the listening frame, from the mundane (domestic appliances) to the esoteric (the resonance of the underside of road bridges on the A68 in Jedburg). The shifts in sound are so minute and evolve so unhurriedly that it is nearly imperceptible (skimming through the digital track shows you exactly how much you may have missed). Field recording enthusiasts and drone-heads alike have much to relish here, and The Maker is successful in articulating such an obtuse conceptual setup. It also has piqued my interest to see if the other works in the series are as successful. Recommended for patient fans of abstract minutiae.   
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