Barreca, Marc: Subterrane

The Palace of Lights record label has been around for thirty years and was formed as a vehicle for artists with no commercial leanings. The artists have artistic freedom to do what they desire. One thing is for sure, the latest release from Marc Barreca entitled Subterrane is about as non-commercial as you can possibly get. I am not sure how many releases Barreca has to his credit but he did release some albums in the early 80s. Having never heard any of his previous work I will stay away from comparisons.

On Subterrane Barreca utilizes sounds from a variety of acoustic and synthesized sources. The sounds you hear are not synthesizers but rather chopped and looped samples from field recordings and reprocessed through a computer. According to the press release his source sounds include "trains, subways, glass bottles, bamboo and bronze percussion instruments, rattles and other folk instruments". To say the least this is a very unusual album filled with soundscapes of noise and ambient styles. The music has very little melody and while I appreciate Barreca's creativity in using technology and for following his muse to make an album light years away from the mainstream of popular music, there is not enough musicality for me to listen to this CD all that much.

That being said, if you are familiar with the Palace of Lights record label you will probably know what to expect from Subterrane. For everyone else, listen to the samples before you buy.

Track Listing:
1. Near Greenwater
2. Fractured Bronze
3. Allen's Strange land
4. Subterrane
5. Linear Breathing
6. Glimmerglass
7. Jumbled
8. The Sadness Of Things
9. Twilight Reprise
10. Shapes Falling Down

Added: August 9th 2010
Reviewer: Jon Neudorf
Score:
Related Link: Record Label
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Language: english

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