press reactions
“Cinematic textures that trigger unpredictable ways of constructing the listener’s conceptions of time and sonic memory (…) Casserley’s futurist, fragmented electronic sounds are embraced by Karlsen’s sparse and light percussive sounds that ground – literally – and resonate this atmospheric flow of sounds with an earthly, chaotic dimension.” - Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts
“A recording skillfully stretched in time, exquisitely constructed, dramatized, saturated with delicious sounds, arranged in a story in whose context the concept of phonic relaxation seems to take on other, surprisingly dark dimensions.” - Andrzej Nowak Spontaneous Music Tribune
“Sensitive dialogue and vivid electroacoustic textures.” - Stewart Smith, The Wire
“A fascinating universe, an organic technology whose technicality we forget in favor of an unsuspected musicality. Waves, whirlwinds, phantom accelerations, mutant sound aggregates, sliding descents in the bass, ephemeral frequency layers, artificial pulsations, percussive vibrations, shifted and hesitant loops, mysteries. Here is a music that is discovered over the course of many listens as the parameters of the development of sounds have become surreal.” - Jean Michel van Schouwburg
Lawrence Casserley / Emil Karlsen - Aspects of Memory
Lawrence Casserley - signal processing instrument
Emil Karlsen - drums / percussion
Casserley has devoted his professional career to the creation and performance of real-time electroacoustic music, culminating in the development of his own unique device—The Signal Processing Instrument. This instrument allows him to use physical gestures to control the processing and to direct the morphology of the sounds.
Casserley writes: “A key element of the Signal Processing Instrument is the manipulation of musical time, and the Signal Processing Instrument might be likened to a kind of musical time machine. Time is at the core of our understanding of the world; and memory is at the core of our understanding of time. Both are fundamental to our perception of music. What happens to this understanding when “artificial memory” interferes with our perceptions?”
Casserley and Karlsen both have a history with Bead. Casserley released Garuda with Philipp Wachsmann in 2012, while Karlsen has been involved in a range of collaborations with Wachsmann, John Butcher, and Mark Sanders since joining the label's administration more than five years ago.
Recorded in Phipps Hall at Huddersfield University, 13th October 2023 by Jo Christman
Mixed, edited and mastered by Lawrence Casserley
Cover photo, artwork and design by Emil Karlsen
Produced by Emil Karlsen for Bead Records
BEAD 52
“Cinematic textures that trigger unpredictable ways of constructing the listener’s conceptions of time and sonic memory”