Bleep

Erased Tapes present a fascinating new collaboration between Tri Angle affiliate Vessel and Immix, an ensemble headed by Liverpool-based composer and saxophonist Daniel Thorne. Mixing ancient technologies with tools of the digital age, the four movements each take different instruments as a starting point. With the dynamics shifting between harmony and dissonance, digital and analogue sources, Transition appears to be aptly titled: a digital high-pitched buzzing sound works as an invisible bond between two saxophones dancing on ‘What Hath God Wrought?’, ‘Scope' on the other hand has an elegant oboe take the lead. Vessel contributes the experience of his DIY instrument practice – low frequency feedback cuts through the dissonant string drone of ‘De Revolutionises’, adding a noisy and menacing layer of bass to the fluid movements of the violins, the drone overpowering its frantic panic attack. Based on similarly dissonant string drones, but centred around the trumpet is the closing ‘Battle Cry’, which has fang-like percussion piercing disruptively through the chromatic knot of sound.