Music for Geiger Counters
Koyuki
May 2008
3" CDR [Edition 100]

Aurelio Cianciott [neural] [June 2008]

Texan producer Josh Russell manages micro-sonorities, ambient electro-acoustics and audio deconstructions through the tangles of an ultra-minimalist aesthetics, which wavers between quiet clicks and rarefied as well synthetic drones. It's the evolution of sound inspired by accidental daily events. Noises are often just filtered and subsequently assume the status of delicate miniatures, amplified micro-particles, which distill an intimate coherence. Specific laptop music paradigms are used for trills, electronic chimeras, and audio happenings. There are only two tracks in this Koyuki mini-cdr, using a technique between granular synthesis and sophisticated patterns. What emerges herefrom, are cyclical modules ordered by tone, or by more structured moments, which are dense and rich in infinitesimal juxtapositions and intricate textures.

Tobias Fischer [TOKAFI] [June 2008]

A physical empathy for noise: Russell is a silent force on the sound art scene.

Of all sound artists, Josh Russell may right now well be the most archetypical one. Just like David Newman (who operates under the Autistici moniker), Russel holds a physical empathy for noise in its purest form, for its wonders and its unconscious musicality. At the same time, he is capable of transforming these sounds into something thoroughly composed and steeped in creative breath, while awarding them a level of alluring abstraction, where others would instead use their inbuilt familarity as an easy means to create sympathy and recognition in the listener.

In this regard, Russell may soon come to be seen as the logical and worthy heir to the throne of Asmus Tietchens, even though this analogy of course denies the absolute individuality Russell has already infused his oeuvre with in the early stages of his career. His music seems to exist in between the lines and always appears to be developping in a completely natural way - although it is not always easy to fathom what exactly it is that he is doing with his source material.

“For LP”, his first full-length work, drew and demanded attention for its simultaneously zen-infused minimalism with regards to its presentation of musical ideas and its high-density resolution in terms of parameters like arrangement, methodology and timbre. Sometimes, Russel’s pieces suggested something very recognisable, but the closer one came, the more these associations seemed absurd. Most of all, there was a pervasive sense of emotionality lurking underneath a surface which initially promised cerebral pleasures only – a confounding, but highly appreciated sensation.

On his latest full-length work, released by selective and quality-smitten label Quiet Design, Russell again makes use of the immediate physicality of his sounds. “Sink” comes with the recommendation of “listening at an immersive volume on a playback system capable of articulating low frequencies” – iPod users beware – and hits the listeners directly in his solar plexus. At first, the record comes across as noisy and harsh, abrasive textures drilling themselves into the cortex and mutually embraced floursescent high-frequency tones slowly shooting into the nightsky like genetically engineered stipes.

The proximity to the Industrial movement has already caused some surprise and applause (Dutch reviewer Frans de Waard referring to “Sink” as the future of microsound), but the aggressive nature of the opening in no way contradicts Russel’s philosophy of digging up quiet music usually hidden from the ear by means of amplification and subtle tranformation. After the opening pieces have cleansed the mind, he gradually builds a stageringly tight, bass-heavy drone from a finely grained seed. This 26-minute long second half of the album is divided up into several segments, even though the music simply continues to flow.

Track changes occur whenever an old factor disappears or new elements enter the picture. It is almost as if Russell wants to emphasise differrent aspects of his music, indexing the piece along obvious, but never banal lines of development. As is the case with most dedicated sound artists, the questions he asks only make sense inside this reference system – but this does not render them meaningless. At the end of “Sink”, the listener may not have a practical use for his enlightenment, but he will have the strong feeling that he has just gone through something very special.

Released on the excuisite and still young Koyuki Sound label, the short-form “Music for Geiger Counters” presents a sparser, more reduced and almost skeletised side. Possibly a radical continuation of the first track on Kraftwerk’s “Radio Activity” album, “Geiger Counters” at first sounds like nothing more than a spindly chirping and high-frequency hum. On closer inspection, however, Russell applies constant changes to his material, continually altering factors such as volume, timbre and rhythmic emphasis.

While the action of “Alpha” and “Beta” takes place on the surface, without second thoughts or hidden doors, closing piece “Gamma” is an intricate example of lower case ambient. Subtle echoes and brittle atmospheres are interwoven with the ticking, which fades into a crackle, voiced-over by hiss. Repeated listenings reveal even more shadings and create a bewilderingly addictive appeal: Hypnotic hymns at the outmost corners of perception.

Next to his own artistic endeavours, Russell also acts as the head of the Bremsstrahlung imprint, a sort of pivotal point of the lower case movement, a lense focussing various activities in an extremely clear and pure light. At the end of last year, Bremsstrahlung gave birth to a sublabel, Trans>Parent Radiation, offering temporarily limited online releases, which later turn into lovingly packaged, small run physical CDs.

For one of the label’s first samplers, Russell has invited some of his long-term musical friends as well as a couple of newcomers for the "Golden Various" compilation researching the possibility of transferring the Golden Mean/Ratio (represented mathematically by the Fibonacci Sequence) to the world of music.

The results are a diverse bunch and once again prove that even specialised niches of sound art are anything but uniform or dogmatic. Jos Smolders works with frequency modulation, starting with near-silence and arriving at thick bass clusters ready to blow your speakers and eardrums apart, while Dale Lloyd’s “Embedded Systems of Unfolding” uses frail recordings of dried leaves. Toshiya Tsunoda bares the strict structural organisation of his piece in the liner notes (printed on heavy cardboard file cards), while Dan Warburton merely informs listeners that his music was “sourced from sound files recorded in Domecy-sur-le-Vault”.

Many artists describe their approach in detail, but the most thought-provoking contribution is Josh Ronson’s open refusal to believe the golden ratio can be applied to sounds at all, because it is essentially a visual phenomenon – and that musical approximations must be random. Maybe this statement should have come up-front, because it never puts the project as such in question, but rather asks for constructive solutions to the dilemma.

The good thing about “Golden Various” is that it doesn’t matter whether or not Ronson is right or not. The sheer diversity and intruiging nature of these tracks shows that the concept has definitely sparked a creative flame among the participants, with Brent Farris even referring to his sounds as “living objects”. Maybe the reason why this supposed deficit never fully manifests itself is because the perceived randomness may have to do with a lack of established references. Even in architecture and painting, the golden means is by no means recognised by everyone and its aesthetic value still contested.

In between this illustrous line-up, Josh Russell occupies a both modest and yet positively exposed position. His contribution is merely one and a half minutes short, and yet the guitar waves of “Fiboharmiculations” immediately stick out. Because of his limited solo output (mostly due to his activities as a graphic artist and as (brace yourself!) “Manager of the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship core imaging facility at the University of Texas at Austin”, Russell is still a relatively silent force on the sound art scene – but one with a steadily growing impact.

WHITE_LINE [May 2008]

Josh Russell takes up the ultra-minimalist aesthetic as laid down by the genre’s master, Bernhard Gunter in his Monochrome/Polychrome series recently revisited by the USA’s L-NE label. Three short-form tracks, neatly labelled APHA, BETA, and GAMMA , after their putative radioactive source material , contain a sustained and rotary heterodyne ticking, clicking and pulsing, that traverses the particulate, and almost inaudible. Opening piece, ALPHA is almost a definitive interpretation of Gunther’s Monochrome White piece, as it hovers between fine, granular synthesis, exquisitely formed, and technically precise. Beta is a more defined piece, bringing the clicking into sharp relief, more monotone, and less layered, creating a distinct textural fabric, not unlike a telephone left unhooked, or the indiscriminate 55Hz hum of mains electricity.
Gamma is perhaps the sum of the conjoining of the previous two tracks, a more densely packed, layered tonal piece that uses shifts and swells of EQ to create interest, with almost sub-bass presences juxtaposing with the main theme.
This is an intense, intelligent, and beautifully rendered piece of audio art of the very finest order, from a small label that is rapidly establishing itself for its precision of presentation, and with a roster of artists that deserve wider attention.
Highly recommended.
BGN]

EARLABS.ORG [May 2008]

Josh Russell (founder of Bremsstrahlung Recordings ) joins the Koyuki Sound roster and delivers three minimally textured pieces of ultra-delicate radioactive noise with the self-descriptive titled Music for Geiger Counters.

Koyuki Sound's mission is to provide sounds/images that are "interesting for the mind and beautiful to eyes and ears." Their releases require "active participation from the listener/viewer, be it in the form of silent meditation or the attention needed to feel almost imperceptible frequencies and resonances." Josh Russell's Music for Geiger Counters is case in point that realizes this mission.

Consisting of three tracks titled Alpha, Beta, and Gamma named after their presumed (or inspired) source material, Music for Geiger Counters delves deep into ultra-minimal clicks, crackles, pulsations, and grainy resonations topped off with a delicate abrasiveness that do indeed require the listener's careful attention. By and large the tracks have a technical precision and beautiful subtleness that is quite apparent, and, surprisingly, none of them really flirt with inaudibility or silence (but headphone listening is recommended).

Although based on a minimal sound palette, the overall sonic aesthetic is sustained and almost paradoxically robust. Even though I‘m guessing purely synthetic in makeup, Alpha has macrobiotic feel that reminds me of the delicate, but noisy layers of random night sounds that one might hear during the twilight time of a warm, humid summer evening, and I have a visual image of the flashing lights of myriads of fireflies dotted against the night sky. In contrast to the variable casualness of Alpha, Beta is mechanical sounding piece with minimal flux. Lengthy segments of it remind me of the persistent (and almost annoying), rapid-fire chiming of an old alarm but for the fact that this one doesn't wind itself down. Gamma concludes this mini-album with a more layered, thicker, and richly textured ambiance. It appears to bring together many of the finer details of its predecessors. Tiny clicks, pops, crackles and sub-bass frequencies make themselves known against a fuzzy, sustained, and ever-changing static backdrop.

Music for Geiger Counters is a notable release for the up-and-coming Koyuki Sound label, and it's an excellent addition to Josh Russell's discography showing him in one of his finest creative moments. Must listening for anyone who appreciates of the aesthetics of ultra-minimalism.