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 of ...
190424   Zachary James Watkins - Affir...
180424   Ulvtharm - 7 Uthras
180424   The Bad Shepherd - The Bad Sh...
180424   Impulse - Impulse( Blu Ray)
170424   Jan Jelinek - Social Engine...
170424   Carlos “Zíngaro”, Guilherme R...
160424   The Borderlands - The Borderl...
160424   Rien - The New Source Recording
160424   Worship - Thoughts
150424   Lion-Girl - Lion-Girl(Blu Ray)
Latest Articles

The Music of Clay Ruby & Burial H...
Over the last couple of decades Wisconsin native, Clay Ruby has been creating some of the world’s finest dark electronic music under the Burial Hex mon...
280324   The Music of Clay Ruby & Buri...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom