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SYRE 016 Initial copies (about ten made) are without labels and feature a different mastering than subsequent copies, which have printed labels. |
Improvised live to disk at 161, Oslo, Norway by Mark Francombe during February, March 2005.
(P) & © Mark Francombe 2005
Ear Nose and Throat is the latest in a series of improvised guitar recordings by ex-Cranes guitar/bass player Mark Francombe. Working with a baritone guitar as source material he combines completely conventional guitar playing and less standard "improv" techniques, with a heavy artillery of filters, delays, samplers, loopers, synthesisers and the inevitable laptop to modify and process his sound. Much of his work stems from the process of playing and sampling small snippets and phrases of simple melody, which then degrade and distort into digital noise or analogue grunge. Layers build and fade, melodies loop hypnotically till they transform into something else. All is enveloped in a reverby haze that gives the result a kind of classical quality, sometimes reminiscent of Cranes pseudo classical La Tragédie d'Oreste et Électre, and other times the Fripp/Eno classic, No Pussyfooting.
Francombe's baritone guitar is pitched somewhere between a regular guitar and a bass, which ideally places it for both melodic and low-end work, however harmonisers and pitch shifters are often in play moving the sound into un-natural registers. The click and chop of glitch is also present, but in Francombe’s work it has less to do with the sound of digital malfunction and more an audible process of re-organisation, as he moves sound around from one place to another.
Ear Nose and Throat is not a carefully recorded technological composition or composed conceptual masterwork, but it stands as what it is, a document of an improvisation showing simply what happened in the studio that day.
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Mark has released a companion CD-R called Tongue Lip Cheek & Chin on his label Synch Non Synch, consisting of outtakes from the Ear Nose and Throat session. |
Review by Keith Moliné, The Wire issue 265 March 2006:
(...) Ear Nose And Throat is better still, sustaining its focus on the excellent longer pieces and providing a real winner
with its breezy opener in a surprisingly funky 'Tom Waits with an Echoplex' style. Its companion album, Tongue Lip Cheek And Chin,
almost matches it in quality (...)
Review by Roger Mills, Furthernoise issue September 2005:
Mark Francombe has a well heeled reputation for experimental electronic and improvised music. Moving from his native UK to Norway in 1997 he settled in Oslo where he has since become a mainstay of the cities improvised electronic music scene as well as running his own label Synch Non Synch.
A founding member and guitarist of the 1980's UK indie band the Cranes his musical lineage is wide & varied which is conspicuous in his new release Ear, Nose & Throat.
[Ear Nose And Throat]
Released this time on Oslo based Synesthetic Recordings Ear, Nose & Throat is a cinematic journey of manipulated guitar improvisations, sampled, filtered and processed into a soundtrack that is both
melodic and mesmerising. Looping riffs build and morph into multiple layers and textures creating a rich audio imagery that given recent microsound debates I wont make too much of but if one is to see sound as colour or image then this music is definitely a candidate.
The press release eludes to Eno / Fripp's 'No Pussyfooting' and I would definitely add Ennio Morricone to this comparison if only to illustrate it's diversity.
Each of the 4 tracks that make up this album have a distinct coherence but what really intrigues is the multiplicity of voices created from the one guitar and a bunch of FX.
Screeching feedback to reversed reverberating guitar, often organ like in it's breathiness and timbre coupled with rhythmic snippets cut up and sequenced in a wry nod to glitch but ultimately not.
The originality in Francombes palette of sound is also due in part to his modified baritone guitar pitched between a standard and bass guitar allowing for an enhanced lower end, giving the recording a real dynamic frequency depth and balance.
[Tongue Lip Cheek & Chin]
Apparently made up of recordings that didn't make the Ear, Nose & Throat cut this group of tracks is far more than a just a sequel. To my ears it has less finesse but is in many ways all the more exciting for it.
You still have the multiple loops and layers of Ear, Nose & Throat but with a much darker, more cerebral edge.
Cut from the same block there are many similarities between the two releases but perhaps without thinking Francombe has let go a bit on this and it really does work as an separate album in it's own right.
There are also some added analogue signal manipulations, piano and pads thrown in which lends it an interesting variation to it's sister release.
Think dry desert landscapes or perhaps icy glaciers being in Norway but it contains all the audio pictorial references needed for a vivid blackout experience.
Track 1 [ Tongue ] is my pick of the bunch with a definite electro feel it moves along on chopped white noise rhythm gradually dropping the beats for layers of melodic entwined guitar writhing into sculpted abstract noise workouts.
This track features on this editions new net release Explorations in Sound Selection 1 (artwork included) free to download with the edition.