| Artist: Ian Boddy Album: After the Rain Released: 31 July 2012 |   |
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It has been said that there is no emotion that music cannot touch. So we must ask while listening to the most unique After the Rain (65'27") which part of the spirit is electronic musician Ian Boddy hoping to reach? With no inclination toward linear narrative structures this work is a free-form floating space mission - even further out than his previous STAR'S END live sessions. This realization (recorded live in concert in Berlin on 29 June 2012) offers very little in the way of conventional markers - which might help listeners orient themselves once inside the music. Are we falling? drifting? receding? will we ever get back? There is no way to know. Sounds churn, swirl and rise, then disintegrate into an often near vacant expanse. As tones slowly collide with one another the mood transforms out of the meditation and on to something more kinetic - something that will provoke questions and keep the listener reaching for meaning. From its gently cooing synthesizer sounds to the plink, splat, tinkle and yelp of rumbling electronic modulations there are times on After the Rain where it seems as if the synthesizer is about to break free of its master's imagination. Yet Boddy holds fast, remaining present in this work and maintaining a natural flow throughout. Living his life in what seems like a delirium of ideas, Ian Boddy is always trying new things - and consistently comes up with interesting results. Some will say that with After the Rain Boddy has produced a musically primitive work, as it is without a strong tonal center. In spite of this, it is a significant release - brimming with conceptual content. But it may be that the most intriguing aspect of After the Rain is readjusting to reality once it has concluded.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 2 August 2012 | |
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