2000 : 12 "reflection. refraction. (third bench)" by steve roden

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perhaps anyone who knows the slightest bit of my musical interests would find it redundant that i selected steve roden for this particular post. however, since he is a "desert island" favorite of mine, it proved inevitable, especially after sifting through my collection and realizing how much of an enormous impression his second trente oiseaux release four possible landscapes has made on me. it is in fact an album that really shapes much of what i listen to today. when i first listened to this disc i was working as an artist's assistant embroidering abstracted images onto large scale canvases. i remember hearing the sounds as they seemed to reflect my very own activities—plucking, dripping of paint, thread pulling through layers of pigment and open weave... the sounds seemed to trickle out into my apartment space and gracefully seep and bleed through the air. the experience was incredibly moving for me and after hearing his earlier work, it was the threshold of a new realm of listening. the track included here is "reflection. refraction. (third bench)." steve mentions in the liner notes that in some parts he used recordings of a light switch from a cabin house. my only guess is that this may be what one might be hearing. in any case, whatever space or object it stemmed from, it is truly one of the most beautiful, emotive, and poetic musical abstractions that has ever made its way into my ears... links: artist: inbetweennoise.com label: http://klangstaub.com/trenteoiseaux/shop.html —diane granahan Listen: steve roden >> "reflection. refraction. (third bench)"