Ora - Final (ICR, 2002)

1 Distances (7:55)
2 New Movements In G (12:45)
3 Things Shall Fall (9:45)
4 Gamela (11:23)
5 Inkwell (8:30)
6 Abstraction (9:34)
7 Roses? (8:06)
8 Across (4:48)

Disque composé de morceaux rares et de trois inédits, devant au départ être un double album... les morceaux manquants formeront en fait After Rainfall... Drones à base de field recordings, d'effets électroniques divers, saxophone, flûtes, sitar, etc...

Many moons ago, Darren Tate and Andrew Chalk found their way to Colin Potter's IC Studios, where the three initiated the humble yet eccentric drone project Ora, with occasional help from the likes of Jonathan Coleclough, Daisuke Suzuki, MNortham, and Lol Coxhill. The majority of the Ora releases have been small editions of CD-Rs following in the tradition of the UK underground cassette culture, where artists would simply release things themselves whenever the albums were finished and without having to adhere to the timetable of a record label. The obvious disadvantage in Ora's case is that their limited nature discouraged many from ever discovering the beautiful sounds found on Ora's odd CD-Rs. Fortunately, Ora has compiled several anthologies from those CD-Rs, the first being the Streamline 2LP "Aureum" (which has unfortunately received the same fate of the CD-Rs and has gone out of print), and more recently, the "Final" CD released on Colin Potter's ICR label.
With Darren continuing on as Monos, Andrew working in Mirror, and Colin busy engineering / collaborating with Nurse With Wound, Current 93, Monos, and dozens of other projects, Ora has ceased to be, and "Final" is probably the last Ora document to be released. Culled mostly from the CD-Rs "Live," "Distances," and "New Movements In G," this anthology does also include a couple of unreleased tracks. As the more recent Monos and Mirror recordings reflect, Ora's specialty has been the construction of the opiated drone that implores a sort-of calmness but at the same time actively confronts the listener with its sound rather than floating to the back as aural wallpaper. Built from field recordings, bowed metals, and various electronics, Ora situates their drones within a wide spectrum of textures -- ranging from the sporadic use of angular blurts from Lol Coxhill's sax and accompanying dense scrapes like a huge boulder getting pushed across a concrete floor, to tiny fluctuations from flutes and sitars. "Final" stands as yet another exceptional record from this small aesthetic circle of UK drone artists.
Aquarius Records

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Ora - After Rainfall (Fungal / ICR, 2003)

1 Gnome Culture (9:14)
2 The Slope (12:24)
3 Darkness (11:35)
4 Attribution To Memory (12:52)
5 After Rainfall (21:25)

These are the Ora tracks that should have formed a double album with "Final" but were thought to be lost.
Thankfully, they were found.

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Monos - Sunny Day In Saginomiya (Edition ..., 2001)

1 Sunny Day (21:12)
2 October (24:38)

La base de ces deux longs morceaux sont des field recordings (un jardin japonais pour le premier, un hélicoptère et des moteurs pour le second) enregistrés par Daisuke Suzuki, retravaillés par Darren Tate et Colin Potter, qui y ajoutent une électronique vaporeuse...

Monos' music is elusive: if you don't pay enough attention, it blends into the background, becoming an unremarkable soundscape with strange sounds occasionally creeping in. But the moment you focus on it (or listen with headphones, strongly recommended) it becomes immersive and fascinating. Darren Tate and Colin Potter work with the threshold of audibility and familiarity, mixing together vaporous synth textures, field recordings, and electronics to create aural surrealism. Sunny Day in Saginomiya is more demanding than Nightfall Sunshine. The album consists of two extended tracks (over 20 minutes each). The title track is constructed over field recordings made by Daisuke Suzuki. The whole landscape (a Japanese garden, it seems) is clearly audible at first, but as the piece gains in density only the birds, some of them singing from frighteningly close range, signal that the field recording is still there. The other elements are woven into a shifting soundscape with no beginning or end. It is a beautiful experience. "October" adopts a very different perspective. In this piece, the sound of a helicopter provides the basso continuo, accompanied by motor hums and a barely audible synthesizer patch. On top of this basic layer are added odd, disgruntling sounds: a creaking floor, fart sounds in a metal pipe, and various other found sounds, all introduced carefully and purposefully placed into the composition, even though they are often loud, disturb the mood of the backbone layer, and alter -- even contradict -- the peacefulness of the first piece.
All Music Guide Review

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Darren Tate - The Elves Are Coming (Twenty Hertz, 2006)

1 Chapter One (29:25)
2 Chapter Two (11:33)

Improvisations de guitare et de claviers par Darren Tate mixées avec des field recordings recueillis par Daisuke Suzuki...

Along with one of his best titles this features some excellent artwork from Darren and comes in the ‘usual’ Twenty Hertz style in a jewelcase with printed inserts. What we hear however is a little harder to explain. Guitar and Organ improvisations mix with everyday environmental sounds and field recordings that were captured in Japan and contributed by Daisuke Suzuki. These two worlds collide to create a very intimate affair. Ominous paranoid undertones rattle the tranquillity of late night insects, the insanity of the day impeding on the faded light.
Twenty Hertz

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