In 2020, Moving Furniture Records released the previous album by this Dutch sound artist who lives in the Netherlands. That previous one was titled ‘Haarlemmerhout’ after a park in Haarlem. Howard did the review back then (Vital Weekly 1235) and said the same I would say about this one. It’s a solid release from beginning to end. The big difference between the two is that ‘Haarlemmerhout’ is about one park, and the music was created completely with sounds recorded in or around the park. ‘A Concrete Pasture’, however, is built from sounds from all over the world, From the Dutch Wadden Island to a temple in Bangkok and traffic sounds out of Tokyo. It’s a bit like the Nits’ ‘In The Dutch Mountains’, which opens with ‘I was born in a valley of bricks’, which meant nothing more than a street with buildings on both sides. So, for me, the tension between the words ‘concrete’ and ‘pasture’ lies in that area.
Both sides of the vinyl can be listened to as a whole, even though side A is snipped into three chapters. “Cuore Nero” has a classical/ambient approach, ‘Unseen Shores’ reminds me of a wind ornament on the deck of a house close to the sea. But it sounds a bit weird because there is hardly any reverb close to the sea, and this track is the opposite. Side a closes with ‘Phra Buddhasaiyas’ based on the previously mentioned field recordings in a temple in Bangkok with additional layers of guitar ambience. The B side only has one track, called ‘Kraaiennest” / Crow’s nest, the meaning of which is the same in Dutch and English: The lookout point at the top of a ship and the bird’s nest. The 20-minute track starts with the sound of traffic lights in Tokyo, and slowly, some classical instrument-sounding sounds are added to the composition with additional waves from the sea. A massive drone is the result, which leaves you with an uneasy feeling. Maybe that feeling is the same as that tension between ‘concrete’ and ‘pasture’. The saxophone of Coen Oscar closes the album, which sounds a bit ‘off’ in the composition. But it’s another one for the books from our favorite little label from Amsterdam!
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