The Last of Home Normal in 2009 - A Digested Reader
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Label: Home Normal
Year: 2009
Format: CD
2009 draws to conclusion (you’ll hear that line from us a couple more times in our features in December) and there have been several new releases we simply have not managed to review in the time we have had at our hands throughout the year. So – discarding the listmania for 2009 – we power through the month of December or rather the festive season with a digest on our favourite labels and the releases we regrettedly could not review earlier on.
Our readers should now be aware of Home Normal – the label curated by Ian Hawgood and co-owner Ben Jones. 2009 was the inauguration year and the label’s repertoire spans impressive outfits like Library Tapes, The Boats, Celer, Christopher Hipgrave, Le Lendemain (ed. ok, there is a chart-topper for 2009 and I admit to some list frenzy, this is my favourite for 2009!). This reader will cover the final three albums we’ve seen come out on Home Normal this year, namely Mountain Ocean Sun, Isnaj Dui and Greg Davis – all excellent and preserving the same high standards and quality that has now become a Home Normal trademark. Looking ahead at this label’s release schedule for 2010 – our mouths start watering.
Mountain Ocean Sun – Peace Conference (homen005)
Mountain Ocean Sun was somewhat a change in direction for Home Normal this year, as this new quartet comprising lead man Warren Defever of His Name Is Alive joined forces with Deerhoof members to give us fifty minutes worth of non-interrupted, droning soundscapes sprinkled with recordings of music boxes, bells, gongs, strings and oriental mysticism. In fact, oriental spiritualism is fused with native American – or even African – rites and casts off an air of a meditational, nearly entrancing phase as the droning, hypnotic sounds evolve and change over the course of the recording.
As indicated by the musician himself, the recording was made heavily inspired and induced on nature’s influence and accordingly blinding as a result when it was over, and listening to this composition one finds himself mesmerised by the natural and organic-sounding which slowly gains hold of your attention to meditational heights, and as the end is reached you come out altered by your musical experience.
Isnaj Dui – Unstable Equilibrium (homen006)
Homen006 brought a new name to our attention at Soundscaping, and we love discovering wonderful new talents. This time it was the Englishwoman Katie English recording under her Isnaj Dui moniker (ed. which of course falsely led me to believe her firstname would be Janis…). “Unstable Equilibrium” is a fine display of looping melodies basedly largely around instrumental, acoustic tones such as flutes (apparently a trademark associated with her from her countless and regular live performances that are allegedly of great quality) and dulcimer that receive ample electronic processing and overlayed rhythmic, percussive elements. The result; minimalistic, yet friendly and nicely flowing tracks with a hue of orientalism and country-side English in harmony that varies broadly from ambient droning tracks á la Celer and Ken Ikeda to more rhythmic pieces that reminisce of Xela or Svarte Greiner that feel more alien and strange, albeit melodically orientated and no too inaccessible to the listener. In the end, we feel thankful for discovering yet another interesting artist who we will keep an eye out for in the future, and Home Normal continued to surprise us and innovate itself with this charming release.
Greg Davis – Midpoint (homen008)
In this album we find a live recording with a personal history of Ian Hawgood’s meeting with the music of Greg Davis, spread across two tracks of live performances set distant from each other in time to provide a comparative retrospective in Davis’ output. We begin in Washington back in January 2006 and end in Vermont at the end of 2009, and over the course of these three years we find a midpoint somewhere along the course of these recordings and live displays of curving, swaying, droning tones. Greg Davis, a classically trained composer, has an extensive background behind him and a career and discography in music that covers a multitude of genres, that one will have a hard time pegging him a particular coat on him. The first track, a live recording of a 2006 show at Bellingham electronic arts festival in Washington, is an early entry in the chapter of droning music works, and as you sit through this some 23 minutes long recording you immediately recognise Davis’ affinity and acute ear for detail. Wonderfully melodic and organically-sounding with a haunting, stretched voice overlayed and positively expanding atmosphere.
In Burlington, Vermont, we have turned the clock forward to December 2009 and get to witness Greg Davis three years down the line. The level of and close attention to details is staggering at times, but the over-all environment for this live recording is one of other-worldly and hauntingly distressing nature – one which does not invite the listener in with warm and lush soundscapes, but rather displays . A combination of acoustic instruments to synths and electronic processing is at display in both shows, but with Davis’ newer shows there is an elegant subtlety and darker, minimalistic character, albeit with the same slowly-evolving droning and recurring vocal elements that are present in the former recording too. To listeners who have not had the experience of hearing Greg Davis live this is highly enjoyable and whets your appetite for more, both Greg Davis and Home Normal releases, as we bring this feature to an end.
Web resources:
Home Normal label website
His Name Is Alive on myspace
Isnaj Dui on myspace
Isnaj Dui’s label Fbox
Greg Davis official website
