As a field recordist and audio engineer, multi-talented clarinetist and composer Sam Dunscombe gives us an example of undeniable qualities in an era where unworthy “environmental creativity” is too often pushed as art. Here Dunscombe addressed the application of environmental sources to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, using a rather logical method to achieve perceptive relevance.
Dissatisfied with the sonic elements currently used in this particular area of study, Dunscombe assumes that new perspectives and improved outcomes for those receiving such treatment can be brought about by a more incisive compositional approach, combined with a sensible use of natural reverberations that have been processed and fused together.
The magnificent soundscape of “Two Forests” is distinguished by a variety of birds singing in hundreds of different languages, hordes of insects, and sylvan echoes. Unhurriedly, almost imperceptible drones start to spread and grow in magnitude, contrasting hyperactivity and pseudo-stasis within the same frame. Nerves relax, overthinking goes to sleep, but the composition’s ornithological dynamics remain astoundingly rich and varied. Without noticing it, we become engulfed in an idyllic reiteration that one wishes would never end, our harder feelings mellowed by the entrancing choruses of feathered creatures and crickets.
In “Oceanic”, Dunscombe’s mesmerizing electronics are juxtaposed with the enlivening surges and swells of the sea, conjuring up for this writer recollections of a formative development mostly shaped by analogous contexts. Once again, a touchingly intense crescendo is produced by the synthetic frequencies embedded in the seaside forces at work. By gradually increasing the piece’s spatiality, Dunscombe’s processing bestows upon the listener’s hearing a diversity of unusual dimensions.
This is unquestionably one of the finest releases of this genre heard recently. Cleverly structured, beautifully poetic.
MASSIMO RICCI. TOUCHING EXTREMES. 