Diastolic Murmurs / Furt - Hospital Of The Soul #1 FLAC

DIASTOLIC MURMURS & FURT
HOSPITAL OF THE SOUL
VINTAGE RECORDINGS VNTG 17 MC

Diastolic Murmurs is a collaboration between Adam Bohman who amplifies small sounds in a manner which updates and expands John Cage's Cartridge Music (he's also a member of Morphogenesis and Conspiracy) and visual artist working with sound, Richard Crow. Furt are the sampling duo of Richard Barrett (a leading composer of the new complexity school in his other life) and Paul Obermayer. This tape, recorded on St Valentine's Day at the London Film-makers Co-op, documents the first instalment of their ongoing multi-media collaboration. Adam Bohman tends to get a bit lost in the mix and the whole works best when stark emphases in dynamics are allowed to occur: when Bohman's rich sound world is set against Furt's timbrally more flat (all that processing and reprocessing) but swifter and denser found-sound manipulation. At one stage a strong emotional framework is established by a choral loopover which Bohman's prepared strings speak like tortured vocal chords- a soul ripped bare. At another his squeaking violin is joined by the whirring of fans starting and stopping and eerie Bontempi keyboard chords, the heavy twang of its broken reverb string prominent before being smashed onto the concrete floor. These are moments when the paring really works. Elsewhere, a little more attention to on-going dynamics and overall shape please.

Phil England, “Hospital of the Soul”, SOUNDCHECK, THE WIRE #111, March 1993, London (Cassette review)