artist: ANDREW DUKE
title: Environmental Politics
catalog number: and/9
release year: 2003
format: 3" CDR
status: sold out
title: Environmental Politics
catalog number: and/9
release year: 2003
format: 3" CDR
status: sold out
This new enigmatic and atmospheric 3" release displays yet another side to
the works of the already versatile Canadian sound artist, DJ, and music
journalist Andrew Duke. It was initially intended as an abstract sonic
commentary on how some politicians (particularly in his home town of Halifax,
Nova Scotia), tend to have misplaced priorities when it comes to placing
importance on preserving the natural environment. Therefore he writes: "I
often use the sounds of Halifax in my work as my way of commenting on how
something so beautiful (our harbor) is destroyed through (in)action -- we've
been pumping our untreated sewage into the harbor for over 200 years and the
city is still more interested in building new roads and buildings than sewage
treatment plants. There are outbreaks every summer from people who get sick
from the water because it is so contaminated; so some of the edgier (moments)
are about that -- (i.e.) the illnesses we bring upon ourselves." Includes one
track with Anne Sulikowski (Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks).
the works of the already versatile Canadian sound artist, DJ, and music
journalist Andrew Duke. It was initially intended as an abstract sonic
commentary on how some politicians (particularly in his home town of Halifax,
Nova Scotia), tend to have misplaced priorities when it comes to placing
importance on preserving the natural environment. Therefore he writes: "I
often use the sounds of Halifax in my work as my way of commenting on how
something so beautiful (our harbor) is destroyed through (in)action -- we've
been pumping our untreated sewage into the harbor for over 200 years and the
city is still more interested in building new roads and buildings than sewage
treatment plants. There are outbreaks every summer from people who get sick
from the water because it is so contaminated; so some of the edgier (moments)
are about that -- (i.e.) the illnesses we bring upon ourselves." Includes one
track with Anne Sulikowski (Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks).
EAR / RATIONAL (APRIL 2004)
Electric tickles on your ear, the (for the lack of a better word) percussion
sounds like someone rolling marbles across my skull - too bad I can't fell them.
A drawn out melody spirals and tones pull. The following track has luscious
water sounds, low pitched from deep inside a boat and something that sounds
like the splashing on top of the deck. Of course, these are not the real sounds,
but a feeling I get from their creation. A generated song that I love. Then, mmm,
juicy atmospheres, nothing except an emptiness. Room tone, and little else.
What this causes you to do is pay attention to your surroundings. I have equally
been listening to a light that I installed with a dimmer buzz and the far more
tonal music of my G4 fan. Time for bed, I guess. (Don Poe)
Electric tickles on your ear, the (for the lack of a better word) percussion
sounds like someone rolling marbles across my skull - too bad I can't fell them.
A drawn out melody spirals and tones pull. The following track has luscious
water sounds, low pitched from deep inside a boat and something that sounds
like the splashing on top of the deck. Of course, these are not the real sounds,
but a feeling I get from their creation. A generated song that I love. Then, mmm,
juicy atmospheres, nothing except an emptiness. Room tone, and little else.
What this causes you to do is pay attention to your surroundings. I have equally
been listening to a light that I installed with a dimmer buzz and the far more
tonal music of my G4 fan. Time for bed, I guess. (Don Poe)
IGLOO MICROVIEW VOLUME 7 (MARCH 2004)
* * * * 1/2 Halifax's Andrew Duke has released a brilliant mini nineteen-minute
three-track for Seattle's and/OAR. Its watery, ebullient austerity drifts in a
shallow depth of field on "Boil Order." The microtonal silent roar of the nearly
fourteen minute "Industrial Itch" is a drone based on a one second clip, as
other tracks here, it is derived from field recordings and other sound samples
from cities in Ontario and Nova Scotia. The mythic fade and placid ebb of faint
bubbly cracks in the surface are pale among the din drawl of the invisible
wake here. Subtle as a fly caress, while undulating througout the room, deeper
than a San Francisco fog atop Twin Peaks. (TJ Norris)
* * * * 1/2 Halifax's Andrew Duke has released a brilliant mini nineteen-minute
three-track for Seattle's and/OAR. Its watery, ebullient austerity drifts in a
shallow depth of field on "Boil Order." The microtonal silent roar of the nearly
fourteen minute "Industrial Itch" is a drone based on a one second clip, as
other tracks here, it is derived from field recordings and other sound samples
from cities in Ontario and Nova Scotia. The mythic fade and placid ebb of faint
bubbly cracks in the surface are pale among the din drawl of the invisible
wake here. Subtle as a fly caress, while undulating througout the room, deeper
than a San Francisco fog atop Twin Peaks. (TJ Norris)
VITAL WEEKLY #394 WEEK 43 (2003)
Based on recordings made in cities, Andrew Duke has two relatively short
tracks and one long one. The first piece is entirely based upon a one second
sound, being filtered, stretched, looped, and otherwise electronically changed,
whereas the recording of water is the basis of the second piece, which is quite
noisy (and short). The final piece, over thirteen minutes long is also based on a
one second sound sample, but it seems here just basically stretched out, with
just a few minimal alternations going on. A bit too minimal for my taste,
although it brings the work of Duke into different fields, away from the more
rhythmic outings of recent. (Frans de Waard)
Based on recordings made in cities, Andrew Duke has two relatively short
tracks and one long one. The first piece is entirely based upon a one second
sound, being filtered, stretched, looped, and otherwise electronically changed,
whereas the recording of water is the basis of the second piece, which is quite
noisy (and short). The final piece, over thirteen minutes long is also based on a
one second sound sample, but it seems here just basically stretched out, with
just a few minimal alternations going on. A bit too minimal for my taste,
although it brings the work of Duke into different fields, away from the more
rhythmic outings of recent. (Frans de Waard)
