Second in the 'Arche' series of recordings featuring minimal drone studies of acoustic instruments, with no digital or artificial effects used.
credits
released January 10, 2018
LINER NOTES:
Sounds:
Singing bowls (four microphones)
Cello and violin (two microphones)
Singing bowls played by Chris Gowers, recorded by Colin Bradley, autumn 2015 at University Centre, Doncaster, UK.
Microphone placement and room set-up by Colin Bradley.
Cello and violin played and recorded by Chris Gowers, summer 2017, Cambridgeshire, UK.
No field recordings have been added. Some extraneous sounds that bled into the recording space, such as movement in the surrounding corridors and the birds overhead, remain on these recordings.
Arrangement completed during summer 2017 in Cambridgeshire, UK.
All sounds recorded acoustically, no artificial effects have been added.
Mastered by Fraser McGowan, late 2017.
Special thanks to Fraser McGowan and Colin Bradley.
This is part two of the Arche series of recordings.
::REVIEWS::
30 minutes of singing bowls and cello is what you get on "Arche" by Lowered (English sound artist Chris Gowers), which is a deep, meditative piece perfect for that last-thing-at-night moment. I loved it. Basically it's one long drone, with the singing bowls adding little percussive moments. There's not too much more I can say about this, as it's essentially one long single thing, but I did very much like it. - Terrascope Online
It has been close to two years before Chris Gowers, also known as Lowered, came with the second in a series of compositions dealing with drones under the banner of ‘Arche’. In the first one (see Vital Weekly 1027) he used tam-tam and field recordings and ended with the sound of singing bowls, so we knew what was coming next and now there ‘Arche (for singing bowls)’, ending with, spoiler alert, cello and violin. It is again released by The Remains Of My Estate, also known as Trome Records, which is Gowers own enterprise. Before he was active as Karina ESP and Evelyn Records. I assume that like before this was recorded in real-time, without the use of overdubs and such, but it very much deals with the way it was recorded; i.e. where do you place microphones and in what kind of space. It is all about the pure quality of the instrument(s) and quite obviously this is all in a very minimal way. It is a very vibrant, almost singing release and it sounds like a very meditative piece of music. In the opening the bowls are hit and in the longer second half of the piece other techniques are applied to keep them singing. It fits the preceding one very well, and looking at the last bit with the violin and cello, which still lasts about seven minutes (and I have to work out how that is done with playing ‘live’, moving from singing bowls and then picking up a cello and violin), I think I get the overall idea of what Lowered wants in the end, which is one long piece, very drone like, moving over the course of this long time frame from instrument to instrument. At this point it is not yet clear how many instruments Lowered will play before this piece is completed, and how much time it will take to complete all of these parts, but we surely get some more beauty in the future from Lowered.
- Vital Weekly
Fin dalla sua prima manifestazione (2016), Chris Gowers ha concepito “Arche” come una piccola serie di uscite, focalizzate alla ricerca della primigenia essenza del drone attraverso una strumentazione acustica inconsueta. Dopo il tam-tam del primo episodio, è ora il turno delle campane tibetane, seppure nell’occasione accostate a parti di violino e violoncello.
La formula di “Arche (For Singing Bowls)” è affine a quella della precedente uscita: una lunga traccia unica di mezz’ora, registrata in presa diretta senza alcun successivo intervento digitale né interpolazione di field recordings, se non gli accidentali rumori d’ambiente catturati nel corso della sua esecuzione. Nonostante le relative variazioni introdotte dagli archi, l’iterazione delle graduali frequenze emesse dalle campane induce un prolungato stato di raccoglimento meditativo.
- Music Won't Save You
Deep, looming drones, minimal percussive rhythms, slow motion abstract textures. Perfect headphone listening for being lost and disorientated in an abandoned city at the dead of night. Lowered
Texas oceanographer Daniel C. O. Thornton weaves field recordings into his shimmering ambient tracks to create absorbing sound collages. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 3, 2022
William Ryan Fritch's enthralling, doomy new CD comes housed in a gorgeous, panoramic gatefold sleeve with bewitching original artwork. Bandcamp New & Notable May 16, 2016
