Search - Bruce Gilbert :: B.C. Gilbert: Ordier

Another worthy installment of anti-music music

Said Head | MN, USA | 01/02/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While this release seems like the latest BG album, it's actually, as the liner notes state, a missing performance at the Table Of The Elements Festival (which is also a record label worth looking into for experimental music fans) in 1996, coinciding closely with the releases of AB Ovo and In Esse; apparently, the whole album was believed to be lost until much later on.



The CD is housed in a minimal carboard sleeve (as seen in the photo) packed snuggly into a wooden box. If the packaging doesn't fascinate you, the fact that this is the only CD case that'll give you a splinter will, as I had gotten one first time I opened it and I was mystified.



The sound fits right in with the two other albums released during that time; less instrumentation than AB Ovo, but more substance than In Esse. There is a lot of electronic droning, feedback and distortion and if there are any organic instruments used, they're hard to find, but the sounds are more richer than on In Esse, and a lot more focused.



Each track displays unique sounds and electronic techniques used to create them, and the structures of the tracks themselves are noticeable; 'Slot Andalou', for instance, begins with quiet murmurs and ends in something of a climax, while 'Reaction Times' repeats the same loop distorted in a number of different ways, which compete with each other throughout the whole track. 'Ordier II' is much like 'AB Ovo', as its substantial length allows a lot of interesting sounds and ideas to develop and fade.



I'm close to calling this particular album my favorite of Gilbert's noise albums, but I feel it's still a bit short, with only 6 tracks (though altogether they amount to over 50 minutes)."