secret sleeping
birds pimmon
| sirr005
"These tracks all brilliantly conterpoint
the improbable, the playful
and the glitchy, with a kind of hypnotic
insistence that immerses you deeply
into pimmon ideas."
wire
magazine
Australian Paul
Gough or Pimmon as he's also known,
has been featured on a dozen various
labels - from Fat Cat, Tigerbeat 6,
and Fallt. Now comes the turn of Paulo
Raposo's Portuguese new music label
Sirr to release what is perhaps his
strongest work to date. Dedicated to
his two sons - Zac and Ben - "Secret
Sleeping Birds" is a complex work
that more than ever before utilizes
actual melodies. What I mean by melodies
are repetitive structures that flirt
with our perceptions. Do we really need
a melody in a piece to memorize it?
Do we require a melody to make a piece
of music more palatable? The answer
is not necessarily, though Gough is
moving closer to that melodic field
than ever before. One of his sons once
asked him why he couldn't make music
that appropriated pop. He thought about
this and his answer was the record I'm
now holding in my hands. Though there
are moments of grittiness [the highly
intrusive "Feather Prophet"],
those are rare and few. The album concentrates
on showcasing an electronic world of
ambience that is truly unique. Field
recordings, manipulated samples twisted
on his laptop and found sounds are all
here. I'm not sure what Gough miked
on "Voice of Sleeping Bird"
but whatever it is, it appropriates
a slight snore, along with the repetitive
humming of a dying satellite and an
old vinyl record skipping. In an interview
Gough admitted that one of the tracks
[though I can't truly pinpoint the one]
features Gough as he's recording his
parents setting the dinner table [knifes
and forks hitting the table]. The wish-washed
out sounds create a truly unbelievable
soothing effect. If anything, whenever
the odd glitches enter the picture,
they don't really annoy but simply add
to the atmosphere at hand. Best part
is the sheer volume of drone sounds
that make for a jittery world all its
own. In a nutshell, this is a wonderful
record, full of life, warmth and unique
character to boot.
Tom Sekowski, http://www.gaz-eta.vivo.pl
Inside
the disc sleeve, Pimmon (aka Paul Gough)
thanks several people, including Christian
Fennesz. I found that citation particularly
appropriate for an album that might
well be subtitled "A Children's
Garden of Fennesz". I mean this
in a good way as Pimmon's generally
charming work here has much the lush,
melodic character of Fennesz' more approachable
music while often injecting a sing-song-y
aspect that could endear the pieces
to younger ears. In fact, the recording
is dedicated to his two sons.
"Secret Sleeping Birds" consists
of eleven tracks, all fairly short (3-6
minutes), with electronic sounds set
forth in oblique patterns, residing
just this side of predictability with
regard to both melodic content and rhythm,
including enough bits of dirt to keep
from becoming overly sterile. A track
like the opening "Want to Fly Away",
percolates along on a bed of bubbling
electronica, iced with slightly dissonant
streaks and whines, dotted with glitches.
In a sense, this (as well as other cuts
on the disc) is a more abstract extension
of works by Eno circa "On Land"--entirely
fitting in that Fennesz himself was
quite influenced by the architect of
the ambient--a similar dreamy throb
underlying the piece but with a bit
more detritus strewn along the way.
The following work, "Bird Cage
Circus", mutates into an oddball
carnival tune, a repetitive loop like
some merry-go-round gone awry, but a
piece that just might catch the ear
of an attentive eight-year-old. That's
about as goofy as things get, most of
the other cuts laying out a warm, sonic
bath with steady mix of the watery and
the gritty. "Amereto patido, quase
branco" uses a sound source that's
remarkably like the John Barry sample
from "Moonraker" used on the
first FennO'Berg release, something
of an unexpected and pleasantly nostalgic
surprise to encounter here. Otherwise,
these "Secret Sleeping Birds"
constitute an enjoyable selection, if
not a groundbreaking one. The relative
shortness of the tracks, I think, works
against any deeper effect the ideas
might have had, given the opportunity
for more extensive exploration. Perhaps
for a future disc. But Pimmon is one
of a number of Australian sound sculptors
(including Philip Samartzis, Will Guthrie,
Michael Graeve, and Thembi Soddell among
many others) who deserve far more investigation
and exposure, so check him out if you
can.
Brian Olewnick,
http://www.squidsear.com
The sleeping birds of the album title
are presumably Paul "Pimmon" Gough's
kids Zac and Ben (who also provided
the illustrations), and each of the
eleven tracks is suffused with that
kind of naiveté and directness
that
children accept without questioning
(while adults have to scrabble around
for pompous and indigestible quotations
from pretentious philosophers to
justify their emotions). "Bird Cage
Circus", for example, cycles round and
round a trite little sixteen-beat B
flat tune while distant glissandi,
bloops and stutters hover above; it's
alarmingly simple and yet perfectly
self-contained, an aural ecosystem inhabited
by a multitude of strange sonic
microorganisms which coexist without
any apparent need to interfere with
each other. The dreamy aquatic string
samples on "Amarelo palido, quase
branco" swirl gently behind a strange
high-pitched metallic drone, creating
a unique and rather disturbing effect.
"By 5's [for 27]" is effectively a
remix, using source material by Kim
Cascone, whose sounds are Pimmonised
into sonic dust and scattered through
the listening space. Gough is quite
happy to include source material of
a broadly diatonic, even tonal, nature
(the sunny glow of Fennesz's "Endless
Summer" comes to mind..); "Signal is
Red" finds an A major scale trying to
extricate itself from a web of buzzes
and drones, while "Peck Spectre" finds
a shimmering major chord adrift in
sea of spacey swoops and glitches. None
of these pieces actually goes
anywhere as such, but as there's so
much to hear while standing still, who
needs to move? Best release so far on
Paolo Raposo's Sirr imprint from
Portugal.
dan warburton, paristransatlantic
Paul Gough who records under the moniker
Pimmon has been one of the more
prolific exports from the Australian
sound art community. His work deals
specifically with sonic abstraction
using the tools of the digital age to
expand the practices of '60 academic
composers such as Parmegiani's
chaos-theory constructions or Xenakis'
stochastic models. Yet Pimmon's work
never comfortably sits in the space
of modernist thinking towards 'art for
art's sake;' there is a filmic theatricality
and clever use of playful
motifs that run throughout his work.
This is particularly true for "XXXX"
where little toy piano melodies spin
in tandem with devilish air raid
mantras whilst everything has been shattered
under the hammer of digital
signal processing. Such contradictory
sounds, which run rampant through all
of the Pimmon recordings, are not at
all ironic, but speak of an acute
understanding of metaphoric complexity.
Pimmon's use of laptop trickery is
quite unique, as it tends to focus on
thick chunks of looping sound rather
than the minutae of granular synthesis.
If Autechre continues towards
rhythmic antithesis, they'll probably
end up where Pimmon started.
aquarius
records
The entryway to pimmon's unique soundworlds
rumbles with dark subterranean
energies which perhaps explains the
desire to Want to Fly Away into the
electric void above. Bird Cage
Circus is set awhirl with noise-speckled
bagpipe-like escapades. Spacious
murkiness expands through strangely
beguiling Amarelo pálido,
quase branco, with squealing wisps and
almost-musical drifts.
Voice of Sleeping Bird simmers with
repetitiously looping weirdness, seemingly
laced with female crooning deep within.
From source material by Kim Cascone,
By 5's (for 27) (2:52) ripples with
sonic liquidity, then searing metallic
sheens.
Nearly musical remnants appear to linger
beneath the warp-and-weave of Peck
Spectre (7:47) whose hoots and twangs
spiral upward into a shifty, glowing
corona of unknown materials.
Gentle/rough Sleeping Bird's Dream ruffles,
thrums and twirls with a somehow
melancholy prettiness/grittiness though
the piece is not as sputteringly charged
as the buzzing currents of fragmented
Cakewalking. A harsh glare impales the
u
nderlying tonal wash and textures of
Slidenacht, which shimmers lightly despite.
The 11 tracks of secret sleeping birds
spread indefinable sonic scenery over
more than 53-minutes. Not exactly "micronoise"
though displaying some of
those tendencies, pimmon's avian secrets
are dreamlike in the most surreal ways,
and can be quite lovely if you let them.
ambientrance
Fairly abstract stuff one could say,
but it's truely captivating stuff. A
track like 'Bird Cage Circus' is great
- it reminds me of Mathieu/Ehlers'
Brombron project: warm, glitchy music
with a very nice structure. It's most
likely that this will never be on MTV,
and we can only regret that: popmusic
would look so much better if this was
embraced by the millions. Each track
is a true gemm. Pimmon's output may
be scattered (that is something to
regret!) over many small releases, but
if you want to get something of his
drift, get this.
frans de ward, vital
weekly
If you want to listen to this work of
Paul Gough, who hails from Sydney, Australia,
and is better known as pimmon, do what
I did: Dim the lights, have a cup of
tea and lay down. Close your eyes and
let this musical creation transport
you in a world of association and reflection.
Nature came up to my mind first, transported
by the sounds of buzzing insects, running
water and uncountable voices I had heard
before, somewhere, somehow, long ago
- buried by the countless echoes of
a modern world. But, while listening,
pimmons’ music makes you rediscover
those sounds and impressions, digging
them up from piles of life’s sonar
trash, which has filled your mind and
brain by living poorly and being subjected
to our noisy world.
That was quite a remarkable event for
me. Sometimes, I had to test my memory
on this trip to my own undiscovered
- and all of a sudden rediscovered -
sounds of both long ago and yesterday.
Then, thinking about the title ‘secret
sleeping birds’ I recognized pimmons
possible directions. In their world
of sounds and emotions, birds are merely
a part of their very own environment,
unable to actively influence it. That
is more true for sleeping birds than
anything else. It all comes down to
being a subject in a merry-go-round
world, which is not influenced one bit
by one’s presence. Thus sleeping
is so true.
What insight impresses me the most is
that pimmon did something very important
for me with this outstanding work: He
bridged the almost unbridgeable distance
between modern life of man to the entombed
roots of nature, those very roots we
all come from. And he accomplishes this
by using the unfortunately too often
neglected musical expression of experimental
music. As far as I am concerned, “Secret
sleeping birds” is a well rounded,
amazing and masterful piece of musical
sound experience.
Fred Wheeler,
http://www.tokafi.com
Each of these eleven tracks create its
own environment, its own mood and
character. From the dark and brooding
tones of "Amarelo pálido, quase
branco" to the light and cheerful melody
of "Bird Cage Circus," Pimmon
covers a wide trajectory of ideas, combining
dense layers of digital pops,
hiss and static sounds with what might
even be environmental or found
sounds. Each piece is a beautifully
constructed microcosm; the density of
sounds suggests an infinity of layers,
the more you peel away, the more
layers are revealed. Intense, fascinating
music, and recommended.
richard di santo, incursion
publishing
The
glitch and hiss seems to be full of
tiny thirps regularly,
giving the dense layers of sound a cheerful
touch. The music is full of
details, all pointing in the same direction.
Pimmon created a fluid
microcosm with unusual trajectories.
Recommended.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~phosphor
"Secret Sleeping Birds is een album
dat onze bewondering opwekt omdat het
bijna moeiteloos een organisch natuurgevoel
met elektronica weet te
verzoenen. Weinigen slagen erin om tegelijk
zo warm en experimenteel te
klinken. Pimmon leidt ons in in een
wereld waar de natuur zowel buitenissig
wreed als lieflijk kan zijn. Een buitengewone
prestatie! Laat Secret
Sleeping Birds dit keer zeker geen geheim
blijven!"
peter wollen,urbanmag
Este artista australiano se ha ganado
un buen prestigio entre las mentes más
lúcidas de la reciente música
experimental. Sin duda destaca con mucho
dentro del campo de la electrónica
digital realizada exclusivamente con
ordenador. PIMMON demuestra que el llamado
ìnuevo minimalismo es más
que
una etiqueta y que puede crear mundos
sonoros absolutamente sorprendentes,
sugestivos, cautivadores... RECOMENDADO.
geometrik records
"No momento em que a ìnova electrónicaî
se aproxima perigosamente de um beco
sem saída, este trabalho de Pimmon
é uma lufada de ar fresco muito
bem
vinda, sendo de assinalar os propósitos
de revitalização desta
área a que se
propôs a editora portuguesa Sirr
e que estão a projectá-la
internacionalmente como nunca até
agora tinha acontecido a uma etiqueta
deste país. Este músico
australiano que apenas começou
a publicar a sua obra
em finais dos anos 90 tem confundido
de tal modo as noções
da música digital
que a crítica o compara aos mais
díspares exemplos do passado
e do presente,
de Parmegiani e dos Faust, de Zoviet
France e The Hafler Trio, a Oval e aos
Autechre, à estética Mille
Plateaux e à cena de Viena. Seguindo
por uma
linha ìsoftcoreî que o
junta a nomes como Fennesz, Biosphere
e Rafael Toral,
mas para melhor, Pimmon faz música
por computador mas também utiliza
tecnologia analógica, em busca
de uma profundidade, um corpo e um carácter
orgânico que a actual facção
ìlaptopî geralmente não
tem. Os mais radicais
não gostam dos elementos melódicos
que utiliza, refutando as suas supostas
tentações ìpopî,
os restantes procuram os seus discos
como se de uma
revelação se tratasse.
«Secret Sleeping Birds»
é excelente, mas agora
importa deixar a poeira assentar e ver
no que isto dá."
rui eduardo paes
Di buon livello anche il più
recente album dell'australiano Paul
Gough in
arte Pimmon licenziato dalla SIRR.ecords.
"Secret Sleeping Birds" mette in
atto un sound design di solida fattura,
scaglie in collisione, taglienti
come lama di rasoio, che si placano
nella misteriosa insondabilità
di
"Amarelo pàlido, quase branco".
nicola catalano, rumore
