Self-described as “the home of music with limited appeal”, Sijis offers fans of richly textured, experimental soundscapes a rare netlabel appearance from musician, composer, and sound artist Scott Smallwood. Consisting of three pieces approaching 33-minutes in duration, 3 Soundscapes, delves deeply into that hard to define region falling somewhere between Musique Concrète and Phonography. Born in Dallas, Texas, Scott Smallwood has been interested in sound since he was ten years old when he began recording environmental sounds with a cassette recorder. Field recordings used as catalysts for compositions and improvised performances is one of the driving forces behind his style. He has numerous commercial releases on Deep Listening, as well as physical albums on Autumn Records, Simple, Logic, Static Caravan, Televaw, along with many compilation appearances, including a track on the virtual release Far Afield: A Webbed Hand Compilation. 3 Soundscapes is the fourth episode in the Sijis “discorporation” series (the previous installment being Cheapmachines - The Descendant). Synonyms for “discorporate” are incorporeal, disembodied, bodiless, immaterial etc., so “discorporation” might be a good descriptor as these works are derived from field recordings and real instruments that seem to have been transformed/processed into ghostly images of the original source sounds. The release notes are right on the mark in saying that the “pieces represent a series of works that involve meditating on slowly evolving textures in places of stillness and resonance.” The single sound source for Colton Swarm appears to be an electric plastic harmonium (similar to a reed/pipe organ). Multiple clusters of prolonged notes/chords are layered bring to life a solid, ethereal wall of reverberating tones over its 11 m 38 s duration. Still In Here is an ambient chamber music piece written for the NOW ensemble recorded live in 2006. Almost 11-minutes of slowly evolving, drifting drones born of real instrumentation consisting of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano. My personal favorite is the darkly textured Stay, a live recording of a 2005 live performance based on field recordings made on the Brooklyn Bridge along with contrabass and cello. Heavily processed/edited there’s not much evidence of the real instruments involved. This piece is a 10-minute opaquely textured, droning nightmare that conjures images of approaching swarm of bees and the laments of tortured souls along with some soulless mechanized chaos. Larry Johnson/EARLabs Slowly evolving textures in places of stillness and resonance LAJ 2008-02-21 00:01:14 2008-02-20 23:49:56 5 1 5.00