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Where the Earth Meets the Sky
by Tom Heasley
Hypnos Recordings, 2001
http://www.hypnos.com
Brass instruments have been used in ambient music before,
but this is the first time I've ever heard ambient played on the tuba.
Tom Heasley is a classically trained tuba player who has also
played jazz and avant-garde music, and has now turned his deep
brass bass into abstract sound in the classic Hypnos style. Heasley
is a discovery of Robert Rich, who recorded and mastered this set,
and the influence of Rich is very audible here. There is also a much
earlier precedent for this album in Paul Horn's trombone pieces
played in the Taj Mahal, but fortunately, modern digital reverb and
looping techniques can take the place of the Taj Mahal soundspace
and spare the building.
There are four pieces on the album, averaging about 16
minutes each. The first one, "Ground Zero," is composed of long,
slow tuba note loops in a very Rich-like orientalizing mode, all
sunk in a dark ocean of reverb. The second track, "Western Sky,"
is based on fifths and has a somewhat lighter quality, a restful
watery shimmer. This piece also has some brief vocalizations by
Heasley in the "overtone" style.
The second half of the album moves into more avant-garde
territory. Without melody or recognizable notes, this is a much less
accessible section of the album. Here in the third piece, "Monterey
Bay," Heasley makes a lot of odd noises with breath, voice,
tuba, and combinations of those things. Sometimes he sounds like
a whale song (whale watching in Monterey Bay?) and sometimes
he sounds like a foghorn (foggy California coastline?). The title
track, "Where the Earth Meets the Sky," continues in the deepsea,
whale song mode, with a lot of overtone Tibetan-style chanting
and other moans and wails. The tuba sound is so altered that it
sounds more like a synthesizer than a brass instrument. This last
piece, I must say, is very weird and would probably appeal only to
"dark ambient" connoisseurs.
This is definitely an album for the specialized listener. If
you have appreciated Robert Rich's recent releases such as
Stalker or Humidity,, you will know what to expect
from this Rich-produced album: dark, viscous, slow nocturnal
soundworlds, occasionally traversed by both nightmares and
moments of chilling beauty.
HMGS rating: 7 out of 10
EER-MUSIC.com
8/11/2001
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