Early experimentalists are fun. Why do you think? It’s because they experimented with sounds when I wasn’t active with sounds. The limitations of the techniques during the experiment show how artists back then worked and thought. So yeah, some sounds in the past are evident in their ‘reverb and delay’ or even a particular type of delay. Compression was either an Alesis 3630 or a tape compression through use of a cassette player, etc, etc. But the German phrase ‘In der Beschränkung zeigt sich der Meister’ (Goethe) perfectly describes why I like listening to ‘early masters’.
And while talking about experimentalism, there are different eras of experiments. The 50s and 60s, when there was just electronics and measuring equipment and not really synths. Then the 70’s and 80s when there were synths but they were mainly used to mimic ‘real’ sounds, but at the same time in the 70s and 80s (mostly 80s though) the use of real instruments to sound unreal, and showing at the same time the beauty of the electronics and synths. Sándor Vály’s “Early Works 1988-1992” is an example that fits in this last category. We will let the promo sheet do the talking for us.
‘Early Works is a selection of experimental two-channel recordings made between 1988 and 1992, first released as a limited edition cassette 30 years later by New Polar Sound. Side A was conceived in Hungary between ’88 and ’89 during a forced visit to a mental hospital to avoid the army, inspired by reading Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Side B collects recordings of emotional impressions of Finland between ’90 and ’92, a time when he met his wife.’ It was initially released as a limited cassette and rereleased by New Polar Sounds in 2022. And now Unexplained Sounds Group is releasing it as a CD.
Sound wise the 88/89 pieces will be interesting for fans of Lustmord (“Bardo Thodol I”) and early T.A.G.C & Clock Dva (“Souldrum I”) stuff. Maybe the trumpet is part of why, but most of all, it’s the general atmosphere. “Limbus Patrum” and “Souldrum II” are quite erratic and at moments noisy and would have matched a release on Ant-Zen during the time of ‘Veromon’ and ‘Xerosma’. And finally, “Life-Death” and “Melancholy” are very nice ambient pieces, I suspect will be written after he met his wife; These tracks are filled with love. In conclusion, this is an album that fits perfectly in my collection of early experimentalists. I will happily play it when I feel like getting some inspiration to look twice at the tools I’m using to get the most out of what I have (instead of buying new stuff each time I feel a writer’s block coming up). Very inspiring works!
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