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With a title like Granite (70'34") it may be imagined that the CD by Martin Nonstatic is made up of hard material. What we will find is 12 tracks which flow together on an engaging digital drift into the dusky side of ambient techno. Granite's core relationship is not with meter, but with atmosphere. This vividly imagined realm shuns oppressive beats in favor of intriguing electronic textures and evolving smart grooves. The person is the target of this work. Without conventional drum runs and predictable song progressions listeners to Granite are free to align their minds with higher thoughts, and not with the other people out on the dance floor. In weightless flight on a mesmerizing drone, the crisp details of a rhythmic unifying force contrasts with vaporous reverb and twilight ambience - revealing both the sensual reality and psychological intensity experienced on this journey of immersion. The tempo changes, as energy levels rise and recede. Breathy sustaining chords expand and brighten while rhythms enter, build, drop out, and return - ever the more certain. Wavering organ tones seem premonitory, as soft ratcheting percussives advance our thoughts. Accompanied by pulsing patterns, the low-end throbs beneath shimmering keyboard notes, as an air of mystery pervades and invades Granite's nocturnal zone. Harmonic boundaries yield uplifting themes, to somehow produce a warm chillout album. From the vast emptiness of the night sky, to the dark of a deep ravine, Martin Nonstatic's idea is for the consumer of Granite, not to follow him, but to follow themselves - with him and his music present. But, mining these intimate experiences raises bigger questions. On Granite it may be we are finding, not so much a musician, as a geologist trying to be a poet.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 19 November 2015 |
