MEM "It Was A Very Good Year"
Alluvial Recordings | All016 | CD | 2003

A very well sound engineered album from an ex-member of Warsaw's now defunct EA project. This time Kamil has restricted his research study to the deconstruction of the song "It Was a Very Good Year" by Elvin Drake, popular in the 196os. What happened to this song is a "decontextualisation" of sound material and as a result the song being unrecognizable from the original version. I don't want to delve into the technical issues of that process. What I am most interested in is the final effect of his efforts, and it is quite intriguing! Although the record features only one, almost an hour long, track there are three blocks that differ from each other. "It Was a Very Good Year" starts off with a minute of silence to increase slowly up the volume to the point of noticeable loudness, and what we hear then is repetitive modules of waving sounds which reverb in the forefront, while an almost static sound band constitutes the background. What is subject to modulation is volume and frequency of sound wave generation. In a way, this configuration of the sound layers is repeated throughout the track although there're some gaps/turning points that divide the piece into three said parts - the first somewhere in the middle of the track that makes the sound more intensive - soft, and warm sound waves tend to become more abrasive, serial blocks that drift at various speed. Kamil's sound speed manipulations are more noticeable now. Generally, one can say it's a very linear work, like "walking on the line" creed by the gurus of musical minimalism - La Monte Young, or Phill Niblock. I couldn't point out that they are direct points of reference for Mem's music, though. It's closer to Noise-Maker's Fifes, I think, or the recent works by The Hafler Trio, and... Les Joyaux de la Princesse (no kidding!). The second turning point is even more pronounced. Initially, Kamil goes lowercase! Not such silent as we know it, but with lots of micro sounds, harsh noises & stuff. As the part progresses on, sound shifting familiar from previous blocks begins to appear. This time accompanied by voice loops and vibrating feedback to end up where the entire track started - an infinite sound stream that disappears slowly in silence. Fine, ear-friendly muzak!!!

[krzysztof sadza]

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