CD – Alltagsmusik

The Kilpatrick Phenol is a synthesizer released around 2015, and therefore not strictly related to the vast category of vintage electronic instruments that are often the focus of disproportionate attention these days and which, apart from the quality of their sound and solid construction, owe their success in part to that strange phenomenon referred to as ‘offline fetishism’. A bit of retromania persists here as the inspiration for this work derives from the use and philosophy of modular synthesizers of yesteryear. However, all this matters little when listening to The Phenol Tapes as Scanner has managed to create a timeless musical mix full of strong dreamlike and spatial cadences by adding only a guitar pedal to the small synth. The project is the outcome of a residency at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the recordings took place in a wooden fisherman’s cabin on the island of Captiva, Florida, where Robin Rimbaud moved for six weeks in 2017. The result is a splendid ambient album, with serene and fluid soundscapes, marked only by calibrated field recordings that accompany some of the pieces: ospreys, woodpeckers and pelicans, mostly recorded from the same room, allowing the world outside the window to come inside. As Scanner himself writes, ‘it is a collection of soft and meditative works, welcoming, sparkling and hypnotic’. Indeed, only two of the ten compositions move into darker and grainier territories. Context makes the difference and the simplicity of intent – experimenting with the many options that a new synth offers – punctuated by natural rhythms that infuse a sense of bliss to the sequences, which, illuminated by the Floridian sun, in the spaces that were formerly Rauschenberg’s residence and studio, now shine abstractly, demonstrating that even by limiting the choices, the results can be significant.

 

Scanner – The Phenol Tapes