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'The New Quiet'

Vancouver musicians pursue the delicate over the din.

Mark Mushet 9 Jun 2006TheTyee.ca

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Lee Hutzulak performs among cherry blossoms in an empty pool. Photo by Mark Mushet.

At a 1975 concert by Led Zeppelin at the Coliseum, I was shocked to hear what "concert volume" really meant: a horrendous din emanating from big black boxes aimed in the general direction of a rapt (and largely stoned) audience. That was also the year Brian Eno (best known to the general public as producer of U2 and Talking Heads) released "Discreet Music," the first in his series of ambient recordings that suggested to a wider public that music can be appreciated and function on another, quieter level.

These days you usually don't need to explain the concept of ambient music at a dinner party and even ZZ Top's home state of Texas has produced some prime examples of the genre. Perhaps it could be described as "the new quiet," and it may be set to finally make some meaningful inroads as people tire of the general din that surrounds us on a daily basis.

This new variation on the theme of quiet is best expressed locally by Lee Hutzulak and Loscil (Scott Morgan), two Vancouver-based musicians who make an appreciation for delicacy and introspection a prime concern. It's music that needs time, space and attention. And it's time we gave it to them.

Lee Hutzulak

Lee Hutzulak performs an eclectic brand of delicate improvised music in a wide variety of unusual performance spaces: from east side yoga studios to storefront galleries-cum-community-art-centres. One recent concert poster (featuring his own typically gorgeous and enigmatic artwork) announced a concert titled "Guarding the New Silence." It took place at 1067 Granville, a space known for its loose programming, slightly decrepit front room feel and discreet back alley entrance. On other occasions he'll be scoring a contemporary dance piece at the Scotiabank Dance Centre or a play about the sex lives of the Japanese at the Cultch as part of the PUSH Festival. In all these contexts, delicacy is paramount. It's music that inhabits the margins -- sometimes of perceptibility itself. It is a challenge to bring down the "noise floor" of the day-to-day and listen to everything, the everyday, anew.

In the 1980s, Vancouver was frequently visited by Skeleton Crew, a duo comprised of guitarist Fred Frith and the late cellist Tom Cora. They would perform loose, occasionally raucous evenings of improvised guitar and cello pieces meddled with by then-current processing technology, sundry tabletop gadgets, household items and toys. Frith felt their music was a kind of modern folk, an open, freestyle form that others could adapt and make their own. Lee Hutzulak's music fits into this tradition somewhat, though he's quieted it down considerably.

Music blogger Sid Smith recently wrote about guitarist Peter Buck's (REM) and Robert Fripp's (King Crimson) recent attempts to perform a quieter brand of music at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe: "There's something both novel and quaint when you come across music as unselfish and as egoless as this." The line is perfect but it is even more suited to Lee Hutzulak than mid-life refugees from the concert hall din. Lee really does turn it down to "minus 1" on the Marshall stacks (with apologies to Spinal Tap)!

His CD Angel Trumpets Clicking Death features such hushed titles as "Behind the Singing Bush." It's an eclectic collection of pieces that moves beyond genre and cliché to embrace every quiet sound object we've ever heard. Instrumentation includes guitar, clarinet, the usual sort of thing -- then glass, garment steamer, slippers, and…ice box! And going back much farther than Skeleton Crew, you can hear the history of the avant-garde in Lee's use of extended techniques such as altering the sounds of his guitar strings with clips and springs à la John Cage's prepared piano techniques of the 1940s. He may show up at a gig with his battered blue guitar, but the sound you'll hear from it will more likely be created by electronically processed stroking of its surface. Or the vibrations of a balloon across the strings. There is very little dissonance. It's more about the joy of discovery in the sound made by everyday objects.

In a way this is true frontier music, not linked to the academy or commercial aspiration, but reflecting a need for a music true to our place and time with all manner of detritus and history piled up around us in artful, ever-shifting configurations. Perhaps it is, like Skeleton Crew maintained, true folk music. But these days we've less need for lyrics. We all know what's wrong but protest and commentary can now take a more abstract form that is intuitively grasped.

One can also sense at the live shows that Lee is a wonderful collaborator. When other performers are present they improvise in every configuration possible. If there are four players you'll get duets, quartets and trios -- then in different combinations until everybody has played off one another and then collectively. Where trumpets or trombones are involved they will be disassembled so that sounds can be wrought from the constituent parts. In some cases it's as though the expressive powers of the tools of the jazz solo are being deconstructed and brought to heel in a group setting. It becomes the antithesis of the often indulgent free improvised blowing of contemporary jazz that sends wives and girlfriends to the exit.

Lee's might be a kind of highly refined front porch music for the art school set, but it's open to all. But unlike many such arty endeavours, there's no overwhelming sense of preciousness. Instead we are confronted by humour and charm and chance. Just be sure that if you arrive late, close the door quietly behind you. Then, take a seat and listen carefully. And don't forget to smile.

Loscil (Scott Morgan)

Vancouver is home for a variety of musicians working with electronics. Some have chosen the academic route, some the demands of the dance floor. Loscil occupies a kind of middle ground, creating a gorgeous music that is broadly appealing, yet unanchored by adherence to market demands or a particular school of thought. Working for a video game company by day, his musical life remains fiercely independent and varied; he is the drummer for local group Destroyer but he has also found time to position himself as the finest exponent of ambient music to emerge from Vancouver. His latest CD, Plume, is released this month on Kranky records.

Loscil has a very different take on quiet meditative sound than Lee Hutzulak. His is a more technically polished pastoral electronica, related more closely to quasi-popular European electronic music of the 70s and 80s when groups like Cluster and Kraftwerk were actually played on the radio (at least in Europe). In fact, First Narrows (his third CD released in 2004) could be seen as an "Autobahn" for Vancouver, using as it does, an iconic image of the Lion's Gate Bridge on the cover to signal a distinct if somewhat incidental connection to the local. It's music influenced by international trends but which we can call our own. And increasingly it can be heard as a soundtrack to a "glass city" of reflections. It is mutable and expansive.

For me it was his second release, Submers, that signalled a breakthrough. Each track was named for different submarines: Kursk, Marin, Nautilus, etc. and its mature, consistent and distinct sound made it, for me, the first locally produced CD that seemed to be deserving of a notable part in the world's ambient music scene. But it was First Narrows that I really fell in love with and subsequently bought or recommended for friends worldwide. Everybody, regardless of taste, seemed equally smitten. I even spent a day photographing the Lion's Gate Bridge with it in mind and subsequently contacted him to propose some kind of photographic collaboration for his next CD. (Disclosure: I did the cover photo for Plume.)

For the new CD it was an image of the steam tower of a pulp mill in Campbell River that won out over the more obvious choice of clouds. And while it is very B.C., it is also evocative of the more graphic approach to music packaging that typified the work of England's Factory Records in the late 70s. You could even say it recalls the Pink Floyd cover of 1977's LP Animals which featured London's Battersea Power Station (minus the floating pig of course), though it is a severe reduction. But I enjoy the links to industry partially because there exists a subtle industrial pulse to much of Loscil's music, though Vancouver being a city with little industry to speak of, that pulse is well in the background. And there is a faintly nostalgic pull in the music, much like the work of Scotland's Boards of Canada. It is a slightly scuffed, dream-like music.

While Submers and First Narrows are thematically linked to the world of the submariner and our most notable landmark span respectively, Plume, literally, aims for the sky. With titles like "Wind" and "Steamer," it is ambient music of the highest order: it rewards at any volume. You can let it percolate at the edge of hearing or dive in. It won't go out of fashion and it resists easy commodification. In Morgan's own words, it is about subtle movement, gradual transition, growth. It's the antithesis of the self-obsessed ramblings of much "alternative" pop music.

One particular standout on Plume is the diaphanous "Chinook" (in the name's capacity to describe a pattern of warm air), which contains the subtle influence of Balinese Gamelan music, suggesting links to Pacific Rim cultures and the contemporary composers' fascination with the tradition. It also offers the listener lateral connections to a wider soundworld for those with broad tastes willing to play "connect the dots." Or one can sit back and enjoy the music's tendency to drift off with the listener firmly in tow.

Of course, radio airplay is virtually non-existent (save Co-op Radio, CiTR, etc.), so this is music that exists outside commercial channels. In a move that seems perfectly conceived to bolster arguments in favour of free digital downloading, Loscil has made a free CD available online. (See link below.) It is a selection of backing tracks and long form mixes of tracks from his previous and current CDs, collectively called Stases. It provides an introduction to his soundworld, offers alternate versions for fans and bolsters the attention given his fully produced, pressed and packaged work.

In the lead up to a live radio performance on Co-op Radio last year, Scott told me it would be a late night broadcast, great to go to sleep to. Occasionally his music can veer towards the soporific, it's true, but it is hardly escapist or new age. That's possibly because Morgan studied contemporary music at SFU where the computer was a primary tool for composition and appreciation of the history of contemporary classical music was essential. As a result, he stresses the importance of the depth and richness of acoustic instruments and has used heavily processed samples of orchestral music in the creation of his "electronic" music. But whereas a lot of electronic music can be heard as "cold," Loscil's gentle electronic pulses are provided additional warmth by the presence of lightly processed vibes, xylophone and sustained guitar tones courtesy of Josh Lindstrom, Jason Zumpano and Krista Marshall.

While there are many musicians and artists creating music with newly affordable technology or returning to basics in one form or another, Lee Hutzulak and Scott Morgan are the real thing: committed "left field" musicians who deserve a wider audience. And if we listen carefully, we'll hear ourselves in their soundworlds -- discreet, thoughtful and quiet at last.

Mark Mushet is a Vancouver-based photographer and writer, and the Creative Director of Vancouver Review. Find his previous contributions of words and pictures to The Tyee here.

Read more about Lee Hutzulak here, and about Loscil here. Find a free Loscil CD here.  [Tyee]

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