Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Pinkcourtesyphone - Elision [Farmacia901 - 2016]

This short, single track collaboration between Richard Chartier’s queasy, somnambulistic Pinkcourtesyphone and Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink is something of an oddity in the former’s discography. Chartier’s project has been associated with coldly anaesthetised ambient music, with a strong thematic focus on contemporary feminine subjectivity. All releases under the name have similar pink artwork and usually feature sampled female voices at some point threaded through complex drones and microtonal experiments. Central to the listening experience is the feeling that amid the tense, vaguely paranoid minimal electronics there’s something like a medically coshed Freudian Id struggling to break free. Elision however is striking for the lack of these sensations, exchanging anxiety for beatific panorama.

At 19 minutes in durations it’s a good length to appreciate the lovely combination of Wentink’s largely untreated harp and Chartier’s superb ghostly electronics. The label Farmacia901’s stated aim is to curate deeply emotional music founded around principles of beauty as minimalism, music as design and sound as malleable material, and Chartier has certainly stepped up to adapt his Pinkcourtesyphone formula to accommodate this aesthetic. His electronics are saturated with pathos whether in the form of gently undulating waves of harmonic noise or richly emotive tones providing the perfect counterpoint to Wentink’s picking. At the midpoint of the piece the vapor-trails of the harp strings are recycled by Chartier into gently shimmering drones as field recordings of birds and what could be the rustle of wind through a field of wheat are added. It’s as far removed from the dark Baconian rooms of Pinkcourtesyphone’s usual output as could be imagined. The piece never takes off, never fades out, but rather appears to hover like a mist over a moorland landscape, sunlight, rain and cloud throwing different shades across the vista. It’s a startlingly beautiful, mysterious piece of music and an unexpected high in the Chartier discography.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Duncan Simpson
Latest Reviews

Pinkcourtesyphone - Elision
This short, single track collaboration between Richard Chartier’s queasy, somnambulistic Pinkcourtesyphone and Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink is something o...
010725   Various Artists - Heatwave- T...
010725   The Good, The Bad, The Weird ...
270625   Murder Rock - Murder Rock( Bl...
270625   The Black Torment - The Blac...
250625   Girls Without Shame - Girls W...
250625   Xiphos - The Age Of Alexander
250625   Timothy Fairless - Keep Tal...
240625   CORR//PT│0N_UN1T - S7ATU5_...
240625   Golem - Golem( Blu Ray)
230625   Cryptopsy - An Insatiable Vi...
Latest Articles

Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sharp t...
It’s fair to say the Sharksploitation genre is often tried, tested, and to be honest, tired. Fear Below is a 2025 Australian film that tries to do some...
180625   Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sha...
280525   The Residents - Visits From T...
090525   Ennaytch - Of walls, abused ...
150425   Dead, Dead Swans interview - ...
110325   Sebastian Tomb - Walls of unb...
040225   Alien Sex Fiend - Possessed B...
231224   Best Of 2024 - Music, Sound &...
191224   Splintered - Somewhere Betwee...
031224   Shane Ryan-Reid - Coerced and...
221024   Whore’s Breath - life’s h...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom