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For David Parsons, it has always been the delicate control and subtle organization of elements that has made his music a success. On the album Inner Places (61'49"), Parsons' compositions continue to command a striking range of timbral color and texture. The mood is one of quiet but deep thought. Written with peerless insider knowledge, the six tracks are each a layered investigation of an elaborate inner dream world. His work derives its energy from the unresolved tension between motion and stasis, figuration and abstraction, the synthetic and the organic. The song titles do not attach themselves to specific images or places, leaving the mind free to wander the quiet spaces between the notes. While the nonspecific washes of sound evoke a subdued disquietude, Parsons just as easily uses his synthesizers and samplers to create a diamond bright vista of sound. Throughout Inner Places, recurring harmonic themes rise and fade, bottomless drones flow endlessly, field recordings intermingle with electronic sounds and the delicate ringing of chimes can cause intermittent shivers. As diverse as this music is sonically, there is nothing unearthly on this album. Inner Places is an album dealing with slipping out of the electronic First World and into the hidden realm of the psyche.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 5 April 2005 |
