Too many weeks ago to remember now was my birthday.A friend sidled up to me and whispered"i have something for you,but it won't be ready until next week!"OK.i was intrigued but did not ask.True to who he is,the next Saturday,when out campaigning together he gave me not just a CD but his CD!......
I said i looked forward to playing it and that i would review it.For various reasons it took me time to get round to playing the recording.Whilst i often have music playing,it is not there just to fill the emptiness.i both listen and put music to use.I have that very CD playing now as i write because its the subject but also because it helps in the writing both rhythmically and in terms of focussing thought.On this ocassion as the recording is the subject i hope i can be sharp and incisive.
I apologise that it has been a long time before i have settled to write about it.That is actually because i wanted to do it properly and thoughtfully and to do it justice.I think my friend and me have the kind of relationship where i can say what i like and what i think but then i don't think he has need to worry.
Getting it as a gift was a surprise,and it is a good gift especially trusting his own work directly into my hands.I like these little jewel cases that open at least partly like a book,although having been part fo that vaguely militant album generation in the days of gatefold covers and sometimes more,and liner notes over expansive"pages"cds even when reproductions/facsimilies of previous vinyl/album recordings are always dissappointing because a lot of the detail is either very small or dissappears completely in re-editing.New material often just does not have what i like to find.
I am talking here about Steve Dobbs aka Crucial Steve aka Emoticon recording "We Have Flame".The spine gives artist and title.Front and back photographs in black and white or reduced from colour,is of interest as its a pine forest with a glow of light which i suppose is the flame.That marks it already of interest to me,reminiscent of a dream i still have occassionally of being in a forest/woodland glade near a fire around which a number of people gather in what appear to be similar to monastic robes....but then that is perhaps another story.
The type face of text of title and tunes is as if from a typewriter.Although liner notes would probably not have answered me,i am intrigued as to why and how the title came about.T.he individual titles are descriptive or enigmatic or not,but there is not adirect enough conection for me yet between titles and the actual pieces so i think i will have to concentrate harder and revisit to review again at some future time,when much more immersed and familiar.Production details indicate this album is from material recorded between 2003 and now,which suggests it includes material he was recording at approximately 16 years old,which is impressive in itself.I could not trace a direct line of development or progression but that is no criticism.It is a pity there is not more information.Perhaps i could contribute to the notes of any re-issue or future similar recordings.
I started wondering about the instrumentation,the more specific dating of pieces,something of the production.this does not suffer from what constitutes the notes on too many compilations,are details of production and copyright that would only be of interest to technicians and corporate lawyers.That said this is not a compilation.Not enough tracklistings contain anything of real interest.
I have not actually started talking about the music yet.So"getting to this"the nub of it....
When i first put it on the CD player it was with 2 other pressings from my collection and i did not pay particular attention to either what i had put on,nor the order.So when music started i registered it as an Eno recording,although it became clear within a minute or two that it was not.That should not be taken as a criticism.If it is imitative of Eno at all,it is only in so far as that for me,Eno was one of the pioneers of this sort of music.If Eno's word ambient means anything,then its applies not only to his own music but to this.Ambient shoudl NOT be taken to mean aural wallpaper.Such music can be highly meditative,all surrounding and evocative for both body and imagination.This music reminds me of dreams,of dreamscape,or deep space,and haunts my thoughts.
as well as notes,these pieces contain pulse rather than rhythm,which is fine by me.i think something that connects with the human heart beat is important in most music and i think is why i find much of the classical tradition so difficult,but that too is another questions another story.......here it seems to be in the electricity too.
some of the pieces are too short for me.some of the piano seems like an excercise rather than at unity with the whole album but then for me liner notes would help to pin reality to imagination in away i would find helpful.Although this is Steve's music,i'm afraid once i have it,it is up to my imagination what it decides to do with it.It certainly feeds my imagination.Whilst i do not require this music,Steve's in particular or this music as a form to paly tricks on me it is one feature of it that i like.Gottschings E2-E4 for example i am almost certain,sets up mental expectations such that my imagination places material into what i hear in away that may not be there.
For now,i will say this.My comments are too short.That said,in any selection of 3 discs on te player at any one time,this is one that stays there for a week or so at a time.It does also haunt me when i'm away from it,although it is not something that mymind can yet replay for me.The recording does take me inside itself-in both an intellectual and emotional challenge.
Whilst i never claim to know people very well,which is a lesson i learned early on from my own profession.i do see us all as works in progress although things about ourselves may or may not be connected.This may be ambient but like some other aspects of Steve i am familiar with,being meticulous does not sacrifice emotion to precision.I do not yet know whether this is material to meditate within,but it does take me to a different mental place.i would be interested in Steve's own view of that too.
That for the moment takes me back to something closer to my starting point-the title,and the image at the edge of a forest glade..."We Have Flame".
I will end with for now,a thank you.i look forward to the next piece.
d3/010413
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