In A Word

American composer Daniel Lentz has been incorporating real-time electronics and tape delay into his performance pieces, including works for choral and chamber ensembles, since the 1960s. Canadian artist Ian William Craig has taken a more D.I.Y. approach to his usage of electronics, using modified and obsolete machines to create damaged, decaying loops of sound similar to noise artists like Aaron Dilloway, made all the more ghostly by the presence of his warbling, nearly operatic vocals. The two distinctive musicians came together to produce In a Word, the 16th volume of Rvng Intl.s cross-generational collaboration series, FRKWYS. Combining their respective processes, Lentz played patient, reflective piano figures and Craig manipulated the tape loops in real time, often adding his own eerie tenor vocals. While echoing Lentzs own multi-tracked, cascading piano works, these collaborative pieces end up being more haunting, and more embracing of messy spontaneity. The gentle back-and-forth of the piano notes during instrumental opener Tasteful Gloss seems tranquil enough at first, but it gradually becomes uneasier as the notes crowd, and then it seems to melt down at the very end. The nearly ten-minute Joyce features stretches of Lentzs curdled piano and Craigs cascading vocals, then strips down to untreated playing and singing for a moment before Craig jams in a severely distorted, mangled burst of tape noise. The album is filled with moments of unsettling beauty such as this, where disciplined acoustic performances establish certain moods and feelings, and the electronic alterations and unexpected changes elevate them to a more ethereal realm. ~ Paul Simpson