| Artist: Oliver Lieb Album: Inside Voices Released: 22 July 2014 |   |
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Inside Voices (73'02") by Oliver Lieb may not induce strange dreams but it will provide a great soundtrack for them. More than mere pure sensory intake this work gets us to some mental places that we are normally cut off from. Appealing more to the sensual immediacy of the right brain than the analytical regions of the left Inside Voices is a realm of no language, no words, just the sounds of dark damp machines - scraping and droning out cool atmosphere over gradual grooves. What is it like? listening to Inside Voices? within our heads? With subdued minor key forms descending upon the listener like an alien force our minds drift back to the darkness at the beginning of time. Heated to an inexorable boil Lieb produces mystical beats - both insinuating and sinister. This activity is followed by the negative space of a shutdown zone where we float in post-overload coarsened serenity. This is an interesting voyage, slow and drawn out. Rhythms gather intensity through pacing, pulse management and the meticulous placement of accents. The tick, thump and throb of slow bass and drums create a subdued undulation while icy chords breathe subtly above. By its careful design this music organizes the brain in a way that ordinary chaotic experience cannot. As Lieb perfects a melancholic image of soulless modernity we cannot say that we do not recognize these feelings. Inside Voices somehow puts us in an imaginary space within the musician - which is utterly destabilizing.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 24 July 2014 | |
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