Cutler, Chris: There and Back Again

This is the second of Chris' extracts from his daily "Out of the Blue Radio" show on "Resonance FM". It takes slices from 44 of these so-called 'environmental recordings' – a bit of arty-farty jargon for switching the tape recorder on while you're outside.

The recording is an agglomeration of haphazard sounds and speech, taken apparently at random, although there is structure to the process, if not the content. The collation of material does indeed go 'there and back again' as it returns through the same set of material and places as its outward bound journey. The timing of the recordings is also consistent, taken as they are between the hours of 11:30 and midnight GMT. The recordings were grouped according to subject – climate, transport, speech etc.

The outcome is not really musical at all in a conventional sense but it is an interesting philosophical statement, urging one, as it does, to take a greater aural interest in the world around us, to the pure strangeness of the everyday when taken out of context. From the opening snatch of blues radio, to cars to Big Ben, to bangings and booming noises, ticking percussion, dripping taps and drunken babble, the CD takes you on a blind person's tour of the world.

Unless you're one of the many contributors, I'm not sure why you would want to buy this but it does make you think about what we miss due to God's big mistake of giving us five senses but only one brain.

Added: March 18th 2007
Reviewer: Richard Barnes
Score:
Related Link: ReR Megacorp
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Language: english

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