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Innovative music is not a structured movement. With its mixed frequencies and fantasies of the future such makers demonstrate a sense of a marvelous particularity each time they enrich the living world with one of their works. Null Point (41:08) by Wil Bolton is an affecting release, in possession of a depth which its title will not betray. Its six iterations of exceptional intentional aural intrigue truly put the "mental" in the word experimental. With its soft periphery surrounding a firm core Bolton realizes a music where the center does not matter more than whatever is out at the edge. Thinking about the nature of aural experience over the derivations of sonic traditions he achieves something new - something more than the scantly schematic - and brings into being an elevated and elated Electronic Music. Ranging from the rounded and consonant to the brittle and bleak Bolton's sound sources emerge in disguise. Building and shaping, his tracks breathe, bloom and sigh, then turn to unexpected textures and tones - leaving behind nothing other than a cloudy contemplation of complexity. From the vaporous, melodious rhythms and spacey ensemble pads, to its meanings at the fringes of perception this album conjures an uncommon condition of cool. The softer it falls, the longer we dwell upon it, the deeper it reaches into our listening minds. In the reluctant grey light of pre-dawn, or among its subdued ghosts dancing to discreet beats amidst a pattering pulse Null Point thoroughly exults in just being present for its fleeting moments of life.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 7 March 2024 |
