COPY FOR YOUR RECORDS

Today I listened to one of three new releases on a new label from New York named Copy For Your Records (yes it really is named that!) The CDr is by a trio named Delicate Sen, who are Billy Gomberg (synthesiser) Anne Guthrie (French Horn) and Richard Kamerman (motors, objects). Kamerman is also behind the label. The album does not appear to have a title, though perhaps it did at one time, as where a title should be on the sleeve there is a streak of Tipp-Ex, as if a title had been printed there and then erased. Maybe the group changed their minds after the printing was done, or maybe its a clever comment on the music. Either way someone needs to get some thinners for their Tipp-Ex.

The album contains one forty-or-so minute long track recorded somewhere called The Rebakery, which I am guessing is in a relatively noisy part of New York. I am guessing this because there is a very nice background hum on the recording, a muffled, distant sound probably coming from continuous traffic, or maybe its just an air con unit down the corridor. Either way, the gentle rumble, coupled with a slight hiss of mic gain provides an excellent bed for the music that the trio place on top of it. The piece uses a lot of space. Although silences are not left to run for any long period of time they are frequent, and the sounds we hear have a lot of room between them. Until the last few minutes it is rare that all three musicians make sounds at the same time, and quite often we just hear one of the trio with slight overlaps here and there. The overall style of the music reminds me of what we might have expected from the Off-Site space in Tokyo around the turn of the decade- quiet, disjointed, seemingly unconnected sounds appearing and then disappearing one after the other, while the hum of the city sits in the background.

The track was recorded in March this year, with Kamerman using his Unami-esque set-up of bits of broken motors and metallic sounding objects to create little bursts of chaotic rattling and drilling on a small scale. Gomberg keeps his synth to mainly low extended notes, sometimes allowing them to rise up in volume and fill the room, sometimes letting them flit past almost unnoticed. Guthrie's horn works in a similar manner, shortish bursts of one note or brief little non-melodic excursions that seem to be repeated here and there, but all done very cleanly and precisely. For the most part, there is considerable restraint placed upon the playing, as if the stepping stone-like structure was decided in advance somehow, or developed through several playing sessions leading up to this one. After half an hour or so the music seems to pick up a very steady momentum and the silences give way to more extended sounds and repeating sounds that grow in intensity. Then everything but an odd little repeated gasp of synth cuts out, and this section of tiny squirts of sound continues for a while with what I take to be the noise of the city continuing. Twenty seconds from the end though this dull roar I like so much suddenly fades out, leaving just the synth for the last few seconds and causing me to wonder if it had perhaps not been part of the music rather than external sounds I was hearing all along.

This is a decent album, complete with a little bit of mystery. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but I like it. I suspect that if I had been in the room when it was recorded my understanding of the music and what I am hearing on this CDr would be different, whether for better or worse I'm not sure. As it is it is a nice piece of patient, angular improvisation that quite often sounds composed. It has an odd, edgy feel to it that I can't quite explain, and the additional elements in the recording add to the curiosity value. Good stuff, and great sleeve design as well.

- Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear

This is just a really good, varied and strong live set by the trio of Billy Gomberg (synthesizer), Anne Guthrie (french horn) and Richard Kamerman (motors, objects), recorded in March of this year. I think they have a leg up with the delicious instrumental blend here: Kamerman tends toward the harsh and metallic while Gomberg has a refreshing tendency, when I've heard him, to linger in tonal byways. Add to this the all too rare, in this music, timbre of the french horn, beautifully deployed here by Guthrie, and you have a delicious prospect from the get-go. And then they construct this utterly captivating performance that wends its way through numerous neighborhoods, each of interest, almost never flagging over its 40 minutes. There's a point about halfway through where Gomberg adopts an almost church-organ kind of sound opposite Kamerman's jangling metal that's fantastic and when Guthrie plants long, burred tones in the midst, transcendent. Fine work. [from chatting with Gomberg a few nights back, I learned that there was in fact a loose kind of system employed to structure the performance, not one, I daresay, that any at-home listener is likely to discern]

Brian Olewnick, Just Outside

Delicate Sen is a group existing since 2006, but this is their first release. Recorded as a rehearsal for a concert in Albany, New york. Kamerman plays motors and objects here, while Billy Gomberg plays synthesizer and Anne Guthrie french horn. Apparently they sometimes use additional electronics and selected percussion, but not on this recording. Here its (apparently again) more acoustic. Alike the previous disc [THREE DUOS], this is another disc of many silence with occasional sound. Its a great disc, again without too many surprises, but one hears the love of playing their instruments. Great exploration of the diverse qualities of the various instruments, interacting with eachother. The synthesizer is used very sparsely, the objects rattle modestly around and the horn is used as an object as well as an instrument. Music that demands quite a lot from the listener, but its a most rewarding release. Great improvise music.

- Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

Kamerman appears playing motors and objects as part of Delicate Sen, along with Billy Gomberg on the synth and Anne Guthrie on the French horn, playing some highly restrained and delicate work inside a room where the air conditioner threatens to dominate the proceedings. That's how quiet they are, folks...I kind of like hearing this to compare it with some of the Onkyo music I've heard from the Japanese schools, and while these New Yorkers may appear to lack the stern-faced rigid discipline we've come to expect from the orientals, they do come across as somewhat more willing to explore and experiment. The title of this release is represented by a streak of Tipp-Ex or white-out fluid brushed by hand onto the spine and back cover. I thought this was to cover up an error, but it's deliberate - that's the title!

- Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector