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wind and wire Dene Bebbington Matthew Florianz's seventh full length album The Tone T(h)ree was original recorded in 2000 and released on mp3.com, then subsequently re-mastered a few years later for this H/S Recordings release. Like Three and Electronic Forest (the latter recorded with Erik T'Sas and Joris De Man), this album employs various tone colours in a droney ambient manner. The result is a gradually unfolding and partially beheld aural vision of tone ships moving across the soundscape trailing various wakes in the sea of sound. Turn the volume up when playing this album because it's been deliberately recorded at a low level, otherwise it's a case of listening to mainly whispered sounds and you'll miss out on a lot of the detail. In fact, I think that headphones would provide the best way to listen and catch all the wispy subtleties of the music. Beginning the album is "three tone", the shortest track at just under two minutes it has an ominous quality as an amorphous eerie drone comes over the sonic horizon quickly followed by visceral sounds like alien craft flying low overheard. The longest track "part 5" starts off with a slightly industrial and clouded rumbling and vague hints of muffled voices. Further in an organ like drone reminiscent of that on Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" starts up and is accompanied by higher pitched colouring weaving around the main drone. The overall sonic effect has some similarity to Exuviae's piece "Silencia". In the track "part six" there's a bit more going on. For the early part of this piece we hear alien squiggly sounds over the top of resonating and sometimes brooding drones. As the piece progresses the squiggly aspects become subdued, and all the sounds gradually fade away. One needs patience to appreciate The Tone T(h)ree; the ideal listening environment has got to be a darkened quiet room. For me this album consolidates Matthew's position as one of the best ambient artists around who utilises drone elements. What, in my opinion, sets Matthew's music apart from that by most other ambient/drone practitioners is how he masterfully blends tones with a nuanced grace to form haunting musical vistas. This is among the best albums I've heard so far this year and is highly recommended. |
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