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The duality of Saul Stokes is made clear on the album Radiate (69'51"). This volume presents 50+ minutes of live material from 2003 plus two bonus studio tracks from around that same time. While listening to this material it becomes apparent that the approach Stokes takes to his studio work is vastly different from that of his live concerts. The studio work is concise, brief and as tightly arranged as a gear driven machine while the concert performances are more expansive, roaming and spontaneously organic. The concert program portion of this disc flows across five tracks. Here we find Stokes further exploring texture, timbre and his minimalistic sound field through the wavering oscillators, flicking filters, grinding crossmodulations and undulating drones of "hand forged" synthesizers. The originality of Stokes' tonality is unsurpassed, coming from an intimate understanding of the technology he's using (as he has designed and built most of his live rig) and the resulting immediacy with which his creations are brought forth and shaped... ebbing and flowing between challenging experimentation and soothing enlightenment. This otherworldly musical environment is, for Saul Stokes, an expressionistic excursion - the language of his inner life.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 4 March 2004 |
