[…] Simon Cummings of 5against4.com wrote a very thoroughly review of my latest musical release Double Landscape. You can read it here: http://5against4.com/2017/10/21/jeroen-diepenmaat-double-landscape/ […]
Chris L
6 years ago
Of all the things I’ve bought on your recommendation, Simon, this one took the least deliberating-over – it was love at first track! I’m quite surprised, in a way, that you like it so much, though, given your avowed aversion to Minimalism – what’s happening here could quite readily be described as a novel spin (as it were) on Reichian phasing.
i’m glad you bought it Chris – and that you like it so much. It’s an interesting point you make about minimalism. With one or two exceptions, the only minimalism i’ve ever enjoyed is the really earliest stuff – the phasing you mentioned – after which it became a hackneyed exercise in ever increasing redundancy and diminishing returns, which for me is one of the primary connotations of the term minimalism (and which for me is much more than an ‘aversion’, i utterly loathe it).
All the same, though, from my perspective the distinction between what i’ve been calling ‘steady statism’ and minimalism is enormous, even if in the case of the latter we focus only on that earliest phasing period. Early minimalism is all about following the progression of the process, over both the short- and long-term; Reich spoke of the necessity of such slow processes in order that we can properly follow it (“one of the reasons that it’s quite audible is because it’s happening extremely gradually” is how he put it in Music as a Gradual Process (1968)). Whereas what Jeroen’s doing, and steady statism generally, is establishing a very similar kind of balance between engagement and aloofness that’s at the heart of ambient thinking. (It’s worth remembering that Music for Airports, ambient’s ‘manifesto’ was created in precisely the same way.) It’s not just compositionally hands-off – setting things up and then letting them go – it’s also dialogically hands-off: the details of the process haven’t been carefully worked out in advance, and it’s not concerned with the extent to which it’s ‘connecting’ with a listener. That’s not the same as the music being ‘boring’ or not (which is a listener response), but rather the composer’s outlook and intentions (by contrast, i’m sure the minimalists would always like to think they’re being interesting and connecting with their audience, otherwise Reich’s intended gradual processes become meaningless).
This is why i don’t in any way hear steady statist music as being connected to minimalism, except in the most superficial sense of there being looping material. And after all, use of loops is hardly limited to minimalism…
Ah yes, I must confess that I was thinking purely of the mechanics of putting a piece like this together, rather than the intent behind it. Also, in fairness, the process diverges more and more from Reich’s early process as it progresses – sure, it starts off a bit like Piano Phase, but to my knowledge Reich never pre-recorded multiple permutations of that piece and jammed them together every which way, allowing the sound sources to decay organically as they (in more than one sense) played out. In the end, your point is well made that what separates what you call steady statism from 1970s Reich is a more interesting avenue for contemplation than what links the two.
Yes, though an “avenue for contemplation” (nice phrase) that allows as much for glazing over and becoming disinterested for a time (indirect contemplation?) as well as ruminating over its details (direct contemplation?).
If it’s anything like the Diepenmaat, it sounds like I’d better…!
Speaking of music that’s worth checking out, Steve Elcock, whom I mentioned to you via email a few weeks ago, was coincidentally in my neck of the woods this weekend, and suggested that he and I meet up for what I feel sure would have been a fascinating coffee-and-chat, but, sadly, family circumstances prevented it. Maybe next time…
Update: dipping my toe (five tracks) into the Tuil has prompted me to buy that too. Re: the associated concept of hauntology, would something like Silvestrov’s Silent Songs (more accurately translated as “Quiet Songs”, of course…but then you lose the label-friendly alliteration) fall into that bracket, do you think? For me, a similar world of powerful-but-only-half-remembered emotion is evoked in its Romantic allusions, albeit subjected to a very different “filter”, i.e. singing and playing everything sotto voce.
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[…] Simon Cummings of 5against4.com wrote a very thoroughly review of my latest musical release Double Landscape. You can read it here: http://5against4.com/2017/10/21/jeroen-diepenmaat-double-landscape/ […]
Of all the things I’ve bought on your recommendation, Simon, this one took the least deliberating-over – it was love at first track! I’m quite surprised, in a way, that you like it so much, though, given your avowed aversion to Minimalism – what’s happening here could quite readily be described as a novel spin (as it were) on Reichian phasing.
i’m glad you bought it Chris – and that you like it so much. It’s an interesting point you make about minimalism. With one or two exceptions, the only minimalism i’ve ever enjoyed is the really earliest stuff – the phasing you mentioned – after which it became a hackneyed exercise in ever increasing redundancy and diminishing returns, which for me is one of the primary connotations of the term minimalism (and which for me is much more than an ‘aversion’, i utterly loathe it).
All the same, though, from my perspective the distinction between what i’ve been calling ‘steady statism’ and minimalism is enormous, even if in the case of the latter we focus only on that earliest phasing period. Early minimalism is all about following the progression of the process, over both the short- and long-term; Reich spoke of the necessity of such slow processes in order that we can properly follow it (“one of the reasons that it’s quite audible is because it’s happening extremely gradually” is how he put it in Music as a Gradual Process (1968)). Whereas what Jeroen’s doing, and steady statism generally, is establishing a very similar kind of balance between engagement and aloofness that’s at the heart of ambient thinking. (It’s worth remembering that Music for Airports, ambient’s ‘manifesto’ was created in precisely the same way.) It’s not just compositionally hands-off – setting things up and then letting them go – it’s also dialogically hands-off: the details of the process haven’t been carefully worked out in advance, and it’s not concerned with the extent to which it’s ‘connecting’ with a listener. That’s not the same as the music being ‘boring’ or not (which is a listener response), but rather the composer’s outlook and intentions (by contrast, i’m sure the minimalists would always like to think they’re being interesting and connecting with their audience, otherwise Reich’s intended gradual processes become meaningless).
This is why i don’t in any way hear steady statist music as being connected to minimalism, except in the most superficial sense of there being looping material. And after all, use of loops is hardly limited to minimalism…
Ah yes, I must confess that I was thinking purely of the mechanics of putting a piece like this together, rather than the intent behind it. Also, in fairness, the process diverges more and more from Reich’s early process as it progresses – sure, it starts off a bit like Piano Phase, but to my knowledge Reich never pre-recorded multiple permutations of that piece and jammed them together every which way, allowing the sound sources to decay organically as they (in more than one sense) played out. In the end, your point is well made that what separates what you call steady statism from 1970s Reich is a more interesting avenue for contemplation than what links the two.
Yes, though an “avenue for contemplation” (nice phrase) that allows as much for glazing over and becoming disinterested for a time (indirect contemplation?) as well as ruminating over its details (direct contemplation?).
Also, if you don’t know the Asher Tuil album i mentioned, it’s well worth checking out: https://ashertuil.bandcamp.com/album/miniatures.
If it’s anything like the Diepenmaat, it sounds like I’d better…!
Speaking of music that’s worth checking out, Steve Elcock, whom I mentioned to you via email a few weeks ago, was coincidentally in my neck of the woods this weekend, and suggested that he and I meet up for what I feel sure would have been a fascinating coffee-and-chat, but, sadly, family circumstances prevented it. Maybe next time…
Update: dipping my toe (five tracks) into the Tuil has prompted me to buy that too. Re: the associated concept of hauntology, would something like Silvestrov’s Silent Songs (more accurately translated as “Quiet Songs”, of course…but then you lose the label-friendly alliteration) fall into that bracket, do you think? For me, a similar world of powerful-but-only-half-remembered emotion is evoked in its Romantic allusions, albeit subjected to a very different “filter”, i.e. singing and playing everything sotto voce.
i’ve not actually heard the Silvestrov cycle (ECM isn’t a label that i’m drawn to very often), but i’ll check it out…