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We may become lost in thought, or lost in fog. Listening to the music of Michael Brückner will have us lost for words. His Fog Music 35 (61'25') offers three tracks from out of the alone zone - our only companions the many vivid sounds Brückner realizes in the ever-shifting vastness of his obscure sonic realm. Isolation encourages mental imagery, as imagination and perception occur along coexisting neural pathways, and are continually contending for attention. This music is the perfect environment for such engagement. It feels intimate, almost haunted, and provides detailed visualizations of the composer's vivid fog-laden reality. Activating different parts of the mind, Fog Music 35 may supplement our cerebral energy in hopes of producing spatial and cognitive distortions - which, for some, will raise their fear of the unknown, and for others, fill a demand for sonic sensations still more vast. Once within these abstract constructs, we navigate through mist and clouds - encountering the music's luxuriant beauty and Brückner's leaden searching. Accented passing notes and suspensions supply expressions of the inner experience, as droning electronic tones expand and recede in studied synthesized breaths. Metallic modulations slowly rise within reverberant spaces amidst wispy resonant tones, which provides little substance for the listener to hold on to. Yet, somehow we comprehend this music's distinctive atmosphere, and find our place of focused contemplation. Working solo, Brückner meets, not the fog, or the dream, he meets himself. Each of his reverie inducing tracks at some point leads us through an experience that words cannot describe. Fog Music 35 is so eerily beautiful, so finely outfitted in numinous vibrating colors, that it might take multiple listenings to prove it is real.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 24 March 2015 |
