Erik Griswold - Wallpaper Music IV [Room40 Promo]

After three subsequently released parts of his "Wallpaper Music"-series back in 2007 we see Erik Griswold making a return to his alteration and further exploration of the sound of the piano with "Wallpaper Music IV", his latest album which is released via the Australian Room40 imprint on November 13th, 2k20. Using a technique known as 'bowed piano' Griswold presents his "Wallpaper Music IV" in two variations, the original roughly 30 minutes spanning composition and a boiled down, so-called 'Radio Edit' which clocks in at about 6 minutes total playtime. Treating the instrument with 11 bows or bow resemblances created from strands of fishing line and therefore focusing on it working more like a classical string instrument he creates a multilayered pattern of mostly high-frequency pulses that is everything but a relaxing wallpaper of music as the title might suggest it to be. Instead, the result gravitates towards an eerie, off-kilter dissonance which sends strange shivers down our spine like chalk on a blackboard caused by an intimate, yet otherworldy yearning and longing seeping through from another dimension. Whilst most likely being regarded as an highly interesting, ever cycling piece by fans of Minimal Music and the avantgarde side of Contemporary Classical composition we're pretty sure that those longing for tonal harmonies and elegic, calming beauty will refer to this album as unbearable and rather unnerving without much of a middle ground found in between these two polar opposite opinions. Polarizing.