Lawrence English - Approaching Nothing [Baskaru 040]

Another box fresh release out on the the circuit via Baskaru is Lawrence English' new album "Approaching Nothing", a 30 minutes one track piece approaching the concept of so-called relational listening which basically translates to the process of letting an audience be a part of the artists listening experience a.k.a. letting them hear what he or she hears. In this case it's the found sound of the Croatian village Vela Luka somewhen throughout the late summer of 2013, a place in which experimental composer Luc Ferrari already recorded the source material for his piece entitled "Presque Rien No 1 (Almost Nothing #1)" back in the summer of 1967. Joining Lawrence English's very own listening experience in more recent times without much artistic intervention done to the original recorded material we're experiencing the uncut sound of Vela Luka and its streets which are surely a little busier than almost five decades ago although it still seems to be a relatively contemplative place according to the fact that cars are rarely present in the recordings. Instead we're confronted with knelling church bells, some melancholia driven fragments of brass, small talk on the street, frolicking kids playing out in the open, bits of what seems to be a kitchen in use and - towards the very end - a kinda romantic and well-familiar sizzling noize that reminds us of amplified surface noise often found in the lead-out groove of a vinyl record, perfectly blending in to the real world when not  consumed on headphones and therefore providing quite a soothing, yet delicate listening experience for all fans of Field Recordings as we are.

Album artwork on Instagram!