Tessellation Abstract electronic / Modern classical : 2008 In early 2008 I was invited by Ressonus Records to contribute an exclusive track to their compilation CD Ressonus Net Vol.1 - and so I produced a piece called 'The Orgeo Crux'. It was based upon an experience from the previous summer that took place during a field recording trip in the Belgium Ardenne. As I sat silently motionless in a mountain forest at 4:00am attempting to capture a dawn chorus of insects and birds, a young deer unexpectedly appeared and passed close by, seemingly undisturbed by my presence. As the animal moved through my field of vision the medium of the forest suddenly changed, becoming intrinsically heightened. The sounds of the forest birds became sparse and the emerging sunlight seemed to freeze the air between the pines. It was as if this animal left in its wake a trail cut from another space which had temporarily merged with my own. After a short while the deer disappeared back into the foliage, along with its mystery. The birds became momentarily frantic as if they were attempting to warn me off from following. Some time after completing the track and sending it off to Ressonus I started to think that the themes outlined within 'The Orgeo Crux' had the potential to be expanded and worked up into a whole album. I began to consider how alternate realities could be connected to individual objects or locations, encoded within a deeper level of nature ordinarily out of range of the human senses, unless uncovered by magickal, covert or accidental means. In order to complete this concept I recognized that ingrained ambience was important, and Tessellation thus contains audio information gleaned from some powerful environments. I concentrated particularly on procuring sounds and samples on original landscapes, as well as from several buildings washed in centuries of dedicated adoration. Amongst others, recordings were made in the aforementioned forests of the Ardenne, the Palais des Papes in Avignon, the glacial caves of Mount Blanc, and around the shoreline of the Lac de St. Croix, under whose waters lay the remains of a sunken village, Ste-Croix-de-Verdon. These were then interleaved with a second layer of recordings collected from daily experiences, and used as a basis to interpret the hidden lucidity I was searching for. Further emotional direction was emphasized with minimal orchestration and electro-acoustic elements. It is my intention that the listener begins an excursion drifting slowly further out of phase with baseline awareness, and that some of the morphic resonance collected from these locations makes it into their psychic construction kit. The album is divided into five parts for convenience, but is designed to be regarded as one piece.
Translated from Dutch: The English musician Mark Tamea (under the name Mykatika) was selected to appear on the Gonzo 'Track 13' CD back in 2006. Now, the versatile Tamea mixes abstract electronica with modern classical music (chello, violin...) and makes regular use of his own field recordings from both rural environments and everyday experience. These recordings are pin-sharp, and partly because of that establish the perfect environment for the somewhat cryptically titled 'A Brain Shaped Hole Where A Head Used To Be'.
Album review from Vital
Weekly (643). MARK TAMEA - TESSELLATION (CDR By AtmoWorks) In Vital Weekly 626 I reviewed a compilation by Ressonus Records, and I noted the positive presence of one Mark Tamea, who was born in the UK but lives in The Netherlands - so I noted back then. More curious he lives in Nijmegen, lovely home town of the weekly HQ. Looking at his website now, I see he was also a member of Kymatik, a group that released a CD on Paradigm and which we reviewed in Vital Weekly 257. There is a lengthy quote from H.P. Lovecraft on the cover but no other information. Like what you may ask? Well, I'd be for instance curious to know if the instruments that I hear on this album, mainly cello and violins, are played by Tamea, or others, or that these are samples of some kind. They play quite an important part in some of these pieces. In other pieces the electro-acoustic touch plays an important role, the door opening, outside recordings, that kind of thing. Tamea creates some great music (and I'm not saying this because he is from Nijmegen, but it helps). Its high and mighty conceived and composed, with lots of tension underneath in his piece, depicting a dream world, but not in an ambient sense of the word. More modern classical than purely electronic. 'Music for cello, tape and electronics' could be a subtitle, if produced in that serious context. I was thinking of John Wall when I heard this. The same crystal clear instrument recording, cut and spliced together with some excellent field recordings. This is a breathtaking(ly) beautiful CD. This guy should be big. -Frans de Waard
Album review by Landschaft: Overview: Another reviewer has beaten me to the line in declaring this album as Modern Classical, and I would agree wholeheartedly with that assertion. It would play in any art space and would support performance. There is the air and space, the drama and the fluidity that translate to human movement. I feel there is a career for Tamea in this segment of the world of music. The call and response of the sonic elements defines the maturity of this work. While there is no rhythm in the literal four on the floor sense, there is a pulse that transports the dialogue from beginning to end. This album achieves a rare success - it is interesting and it is challenging. It has the mystery of the Mona Lisa smile. It moulds itself around the mood of the listener transporting that experience to a more vivid place. A catalyst of the soul. The snippets of classical instrumentation are pinpricks of light glimpsed through a felt curtain. The Rothko analogy is there waiting for the listener to recognise. Also evident is the Tessallation metaphor, subtle and cliché-free. The work is a geometric patchwork of sonic components, each in balance with it's neighbour. There is a sonic tension that has the senses primed in expectation. Music is a contract of rules and conventions. And in any work of semi-abstraction, the listener's reception is primed to receive the information bound by those rules. Here, the rules are obeyed, but pushed up to the limit, challenging the listener to fill in the gaps and make something, the sum of the parts greater than the whole, a gestalt, in the same way detailed scrutiny of a painting by DeKooning pulls shapes out of a tangle of brush-stoke expressions. That is what I like about this work; it's success, an expression of poise and balance. Tamea, a designer by profession has crafted a remarkable cover for this work, in the limited (promo) edition of the CD - an origami lotus-flower that opens to present the disk. The artwork, an ambiguous photograph that splashes light against a dark background in the Old Testament apocalyptic manner supports the music appositely, marking a stage in the path from hand to eye to ear that is the act of playing the music. Landschaft unreservedly recommends this release.
Album review from The Cookshop: Haven’t heard of Tamea or AtmoWorks prior to this,
but it’s an instant eye-opener of sorts, and just a wealth to hear.
“It has the mystery of the Mona Lisa smile”, says someone, and I bet
there are plenty of folks around who’ll fall for that. Immaculately
conceived, meticulous, ever-shifting, vivid, time-depriving soundscapes
suitable for your full attention-span… |
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