Aaron Martin & Machinefabriek - Cello Recycling (self release, 2007)

1 Machinefabriek - Cello Recycling (11:54)
2 Aaron Martin - Piece 3 (2:01)
3 Aaron Martin - Piece 5 (3:47)
4 Aaron Martin - Piece 6 (1:49)

Les morceaux de violoncelles d'Aaron Martin ont été utilisés par Machinefabriek lors de l'ouverture de la galerie Lokaal 01 à Breda pour en faire un drone dense et profond....

Machinefabriek. Man. This guy doesn't know how to stop being overproductive and high quality at the same time. All these lovely 3" cd-r's are worth every single penny and this little ditty is no exception. If you ever wondered what grey autumns in Holland feel like, just listen to Machinefabriek. Drones with a lot of thought and personality, aural fingerprints, stuff that makes time float.

Cello Recycling contains 3 pieces. All recordings made by cellist Aaron Martin, the first track being remixed by Machinefabriek. Eleven minutes of ghostly cello sounds, building up slowly and with huge respect for doomed silence. Like listening to an earthquake rumbling 200 hundred miles away with your ear to the soil. Towards the middle, the floaty flat drone gets punctured by exilirating low end fuzzquakes before drifting into the dense fog of haunted cello sounds again. There's always great dynamics going on in Machinefabriek's music so once you think you've had the best part there's always new developments around the corner. It really feels like a morning stroll through a foggy unknown.

Tracks 2 to 4 are short examples of Aaron Martin's original works. This way you get a slight idea about Machinefabriek's jolted mind. It's these tracks that make you realise how immaculate this dude works his craft and really, just a peek inside a gloomy mindstate. One with a love for melancholy and maybe even the haunted pasts of whatever interesting people he's met over the years.

I know all this praise might seem suspect coming from me as I just released a Machinefabriek chapter on my own label but if there's ever gonna be a bad Machinefabriek, I'd be seriously thrilled to slag it off. No joke. Up until now, pfft, you just can't knock dude's hustle.

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Aaron Martin - River Water (Preservation, 2008)

01 Alison (6:00)
02 Sisters (5:57)
03 Cord Blood (2:57)
04 Moon Jellies (6:53)
05 The Shape of Leaves (2:19)
06 Tar Paper (6:53)
07 Tire Swing (4:22)
08 Mannal Street (4:41)
09 Burning Honey (3:59)
10 Trees Are Smoke (3:42)

Pour son second album, le violoncelliste Aaron Martin joue le funambule entre expérimentation et musique de chambre, créant des pièces mélodiques et mystérieuses en réussissant le tour de force de ne pas sombrer dans l'abstraction la plus complète sans les faire sonner par trop familières....

A follow-up to his Preservation debut 'Almond', Australian cellist and sound sculptor Aaron Martin continues to fashion his peculiarly intimate brand of bedroom electroacoustic music having recently collaborated with Machinefabriek on his Huis 3" CD-r and the Cello Recycling project. While Rutger Van Zuydervelt's compositions tend to be glazed with a kind of hard-edged industrial professionalism, Martin's work is characterised by a sense of personable domesticity. It's not so much that this music could really be regarded as lo-fi, more that the scale has been shrunken to incorporate up-close recordings of the most hum-drum sounds you could imagine from everyday life: shakers, cutlery and even candleholders figure in these pieces somewhere, chiming in with the arsenal of more conventional musical instruments at Martin's disposal (to name a few: ukulele, mandolin, ocarina, an assortment of bells, and of course the cello). The music can take stylistic turns from outright drone to a more foksy sound without coming across as inconsistent, shifting from monochord sustain in the first half of 'Tar paper' into the homely, tuneful loops of 'Tire Swing' with consummate fluidity. Maintaining a constant balance between accessibility and experimental sound crafting, River Water is one of the most eminently listenable electroacoustic albums you could hope to encounter, and an absolutely wonderful album.
Boomkat

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Aaron Martin - Almond (Preservation, 2007)

1		Karl Rove (1:34)
2		Canopy (4:02)
3		Kentucky (3:48)
4		Water Damage (5:03)
5		Bare Hands (2:39)
6		Pinball (5:30)
7		The Ducks Are Just Sleeping (4:59)
8		A Robin (2:28)
9		The Bike Police (6:17)
10		Darwin (5:54)
11		Le Bateau-Mouche (7:07)

It's nice to see a certain progression in the way bedroom music has tumbled over the last few years. From the instant gratification of technological advance which manifested itself in the somewhat irksome IDM explosion, the world has moved on quite pleasantly into a place where producers of all kinds can work in the confines of their own bedrooms and throw together music that is truly mesmerising. Recently the trend toward glitchy electronics has been replaced with one for home-grown low-fidelity folk sounds, and we've been treated to beautiful records from sources such as Digitalis, Fonal and the masses of US micro-labels and cdr imprints doing the rounds. One such gem is this debut full-length from Kansas multi-instrumentalist Aaron Martin, who has been picked up by Australia's always-interesting Preservation label. Taking cues from avant-pranksters The Books and post-classical outfit Clogs, Martin also manages to bring to the record 'that' sound, the sound of home-grown folkish experimentalism bringing to mind Thuja and the Jewelled Antler Collective, MV&EE or The North Sea. This is all placed together expertly with a distinctly US slant - so we hear banjos and fiddles colliding with bubbling electronics and carefully selected vocal cuts, or sweeping strings and delicate electric guitar melodies offset by the sound of hiccupping toys and trickling streams. There is a lightness, a humour and a delicateness to Martin's production that endears his music to you almost instantly and leaves a lasting impression so many recordings fail to do. Where 'Almond' really stands out though is in its composition, the songs rather than being a mess of failed ideas and half-hearted jams seem measured and deeply thoughtful, and this is what sets it apart from so many other albums in the sprawling genre. A gorgeous, whimsical and hugely rewarding record, 'Almond' is one of those records that will warm the room in winter and actually put a smile on your face without resorting to tired old tricks or micro-cliché's. Highly recommedned.

Boomkat

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