Jefre Cantu-Ledesma ::: The Garden of Forking Paths ::: Spekk KK: 009

This release is very hard to put words to: something could be said along the lines of immanent electronic interiority: pensive emotional film music, an interior landscape perhaps………

It is slightly reminiscent of Cycla’s ‘Level’ release on Spekk (KK007) but this is not a critical comparison, at least not meant in any negative sense, more a comment on the aesthetic palette utilised and the sense of slowness and unfolding within the work: on saying this I am also minded of Taylor Dupree’s ‘Northern’ cd on 12K, although there is a smoothness within that work that contrasts a bit with the slightly rawer feel of this release. Slow motion, blurry and at times mournful electronic voices give a sense of an exploration of some kind of interiority. The closest analogy I can come up with would be of something like an exploration of space, whether an abstract show at a gallery or a more idiosyncratic, derelict space, for example entering an abandoned warehouse, slowly moving around, exploring the space visually, taking in the historical artefacts such as doors and fixtures in varying states of decay, writing and/or graffiti on the wall, weird juxtapositions of the previous legal and semi-legal inhabitants, different spaces and perspectives. All within the visual register.

Heavy, defocused sounds, give us a heightened sense of the interior, the emotional. Abstract sounds painting sonic forms, an extremism of sorts that is very effective. Reading off the titles to the pieces, such as ‘Aberration of Starlight’, ‘Spirits’, ‘The Lights and Perfections’, ‘Phases of the Moon’ and ‘Our Way was Lit by Moonlight’, somehow gives a greater orientation to the work.

There’s something very conscious about this release, about its integrity of style, that reminded me of Daniel Framptons’ commentary on Harmony Korines’ film ‘Julien Donkey Boy’. I would like to quote from his book ‘Filmosophy’,

“When a film frames a person that act of framing creates a way of seeing that person (as central or peripheral or close-up). The filmgoer sees that person via the films thinking of that person – this thinking is simply the action of form as dramatic intention. This effect is enhanced by the film-goer’s understanding of film’s actions as emotional thinkings – through this engagement they merge with the film a little more fully, because their natural aesthetic thinking links more directly with the film. The filmgoer experiences film more intuitively, not via technology or external authorship, but directly, as a thinking thing. In making ‘style’ integral to the films thinking (and not an addendum to its ‘main content work’), filmosophy hopes to widen and deepen the experience of the filmgoer. Film form is always there, and thus necessarily part of the actions and events, and filmosophy simply, holistically, bonds film’s actions to dramatically thoughtful motives and intentions. Film style is now seen to be the dramatic intention of the film itself.”

When reading this quotation if you think of abstract music instead of film I think it gives us a little more understanding of the value of such work as ‘The Garden…’, since it is at once a piece within itself and resonant with other electronic works. It is stylistically coherent within itself and I think that’s the main reason why I quoted Frampton.

Sensuous raw electronica. Recommended.

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February 2007