Eastley, Max
Installation Recordings (1973-2008) (2cd)
What is essentially a retrospective of MAX EASTLEY's installation work updates and adds many new examples to New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments (split LP with David Toop, Obscure Records 1975). Of the 35 tracks on this, Eastley's first solo CD, only the last two have guests or "playing" (the most virtuosic moment being GEORGE LEWIS wailing on a grass blade). All the other pieces are either powered by the natural forces of wind and water, or else motor-driven gallery installations. The ethereal sounds of the Aoelian harps, the haunting Aeolian flutes, and the violent tension of his aerophone installations are hallmark Eastley sounds, which sit, with many others, amid a wide range of acoustic settings, from windy hill tops to quiet brooks, residential street scenes to coastal shores. The range of indoor recordings is no less varied: a rich variety of acoustics and gallery spaces from tiny micro sounds to large-scale amplification. Wood, metal and stone are brought to life with electricity. Although there are many photos in the 20-page booklet, much is left to the imagination; such limited access to the visual pulls the focus toward the musicality of the sounds themselves, reinforced by slow crossfades from indoors to outdoors, forming a series of suites. The recordings mostly date from the mid-'70s, but there are pieces from later decades. Nearly everything was recorded either to Revox or Uher and occasionally to cassette, using what microphones were available at the time. Recent recordings are digital. The varying quality of the recording set-ups across this double-CD adds yet another dimension to the shifting sound fabric of the anthology.