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Review
of Jasper Leyland 'Margin' album from Textura website:
Margin,
the debut album by Jasper Leyland (aka Norwich-based Jonathan Brewster)
features richly detailed drone explorations constructed from field
elements, electronic, and acoustic elements. Though its five tracks
are variously short and long, the album registers as an extended
and accomplished whole despite the presence of transitions between
pieces.
Created
entirely from zither sounds, “Margin” immediately establishes
the album's meditative-drone ambiance with its slowly developing
mass of naturalistic rustles, plucks, and field noises, a prelude
to the first epic “Riseholme.” At the outset, a piercing
tone snakes through a dense bed of rustling haze and crackle, then
recedes to let acoustic strums move to the forefront. The elements
congeal into a restless droning mass of plucks and smears until,
midway through, Brewster removes layers, exposing the wavering simmer
of processed melodica, before elements again accumulate into a crackling
mass. “Riseholme” demonstrates Brewster's skill at convincingly
sustaining a work's delicate balance throughout a sixteen-minute
duration. Though less epic, the central “Lapse” makes
a strong impression by weaving glistening synth pulsations and staccato
plucks into a cathedralesque mass. “Turned” is so brief
as to seem incidental amidst the more ambitious pieces and is more
notable for the manner of its construction, with some of its noises
originating at a Norfolk beach where Brewster buried a microphone
in pebbles and recorded the results. The electric guitar focus of
the second extended piece, “Prospect,” calls Christopher
Willits' work to mind, with Brewster transforming clicks and ripples
into a meditative sunrise of bell tones.
Available
in a mere 150-copy run, Margin impresses as a distinguished
collection of subtly textured drone works, with Brewster proving
himself a deft sculptor of organic and processed sounds.
Ron
Schepper
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