Black Truffle presents a new issue of Annea Lockwood's classic 1970 tape piece "Tiger Balm", accompanied by two exquisite unreleased works for percussion and voice.
"Created while Lockwood was living in the UK, the side-long 'Tiger Balm' is a singular work within the cannon of tape music. Inspired by research into the ritual function of music, the piece explores the possibility of evoking ancient communal memories through sound. Breaking entirely with the dynamic language of the musique concrète tradition, Lockwood uses a select palette of mainly unprocessed sonic elements chosen for their mysterious and erotic characteristics (a purring cat, a heartbeat, gongs, slowed down jaw harp, a tiger, a woman's breath, a plane passing overhead), presenting at most two sounds at once. As one sound flows organically into the next, their shared characteristics are highlighted, opening a space of dream logic and mysterious associations between nature and culture, the ancient and the modern. The B side presents two pieces for percussion recorded here for the first time. 'Amazonia Dreaming' (1987), performed by Dominic Donato, uses unaccompanied snare drum and voice to evoke the nocturnal soundscape of the Amazon rainforest. Unorthodox techniques and materials (marbles, chopsticks, a plastic jar lid) transform the snare into a resonant field of sensual textures. 'Immersion' (1998), performed by Donato and Frank Cassara, is a slow-moving exploration of gentle beating tones, performed on marimba, tam tams, and gong. Like the other two works presented on this LP, it provides captivating proof of Lockwood's belief in the complexity that deep listening can reveal within seemingly simple sounds." -- Francis Plagne
Design by Stephen O'Malley; Mastered by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering.
Available as a 320k MP3 or 16bit FLAC download
Tracklisting:
1. Tiger Balm - 19:16
2. Amazonia Dreaming - 4:37
3. Immersion - 14:39
Annea Lockwood’s compositions range from sound art and environmental sound installations to concert music. Recent works include bayou-borne, for Pauline, for 6 improvising musicians based on a map of the bayous in Houston, TX; Streaming, Swirling, Converging, an electroacoustic collaboration with Christina Kubisch for the 2018 Kubisch/Lockwood release on the Gruenrekorder label (The secret life of the inaudible), and Wild Energy, with Bob Bielecki – a multi-channel outdoor installation focused on geophysical, atmospheric and mammalian infra and ultra sound sources, commissioned by the Caramoor Festival of the Arts.
Her music has been presented in many venues and festivals including the Tectonics/BBC Festival Glasgow, the Henry Moore Institute Leeds, the Lab, San Francisco, the Israeli Center for Digital Arts, Holon Israel, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn and the London Contemporary Music Festival 2018. Her works have been issued on CD, vinyl and online by Gruenrekorder, Black Truffle, Superior Viaduct, Lovely Music, New World, 3Leaves, XI, EM and other labels.
