Since 2021, Howard has been creating releases in a Suburban Observances series. There have been five in total already, and maybe because some labels work a bit faster than others, the latest release is #3 on the beautiful Oxidation label from Chicago. Howard’s exact ‘how’ is a mystery, but it seems he is given source material by several artists who are all thanked in the liner notes, and then, Howard gets to work with everything that creates or plays or (re)records sounds. Resulting in yet another release that is captivating in its – what feels like – post-industrial beauty. In between electroacoustics, soundscapes and drones lies the territory of a culture in decay, and that is what I think is the observation that Howard wants to tell about.
Amongst the knowingly or unknowingly participating artists in this third volume are Andrea Pensado, Frans de Waard, Stuart Chalmers and Rudolf Eb.er. It’s definitely an exciting bunch to work with. But while listening, I was trying to see if I could find which material people did send and what he did with it. How do you collaborate or create music when you’re given raw material from a plethora of people? Is the individual sonic donation recognizable? Being quite familiar with the material of Frans de Waard, I listened to this album several times with that in mind. I *might* suspect one particular phrase being from his hand, but having said that, that being a suspicion and not a certainty shows how good Howard Stelzer is as an artist. The second thing I noticed during those several listenings was that the sounds did not bore me. The sixth or seventh listen was as enjoyable as the first, and at different volumes, I noticed different layers, creating entirely new dynamics.
“Euclid Is a Dead Sponge” is an album that gives a sonic representation of the emotions of a suburban area. The constant presence of the highway, which sounds we no longer notice … The emptiness of the absent social interaction as all that’s done in the suburbs is sleep, eat, and travel to work … The pressure of working too many hours to pay for an overpriced house where you have to live to be close to the work mentioned earlier … Third world problems? Or ‘Suburban Observances’?
That’s what I hear in “Euclid Is a Dead Sponge”. And I love how it’s done. Maybe you hear different things, but I’ll chase the other four volumes while you listen.
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