Zugzwang For Fostex

Hot on the heels of Vancouver classical vocalist and sound artist Ian William Craig's LP Cradle for the Wanting comes this experiment in analog decay. It's chillier and more ascetic than Craig's epic, sublime records for Recital. In Craig's own words: “Recorded, performed and mixed by IWC entirely on a customised Fostex X-15 as it slowly died because of having customised it. All sounds created using analogue tape, manipulated and circuit-bent tape recorders, a swag spring reverb, the Craig piano, sandpaper, the Reminsky Fatso and IWC's voice. No digital anythings were employed in the creation of this recording because who knows how any of that stuff works anyways.” Fans of The Caretaker and related artists will like this. Tracks fade into one another. Favorites: 3, 4, 5, 6, 10. No words, no FCCs.

1. (1:49)—Slow, sad piano, with tape-warping in the background.
2. (6:28)—Distorted voices blowing about in the wind.
3. *(2:25)—Choral, sad, droning. Halting tape.
4. *(4:29)—Blown out piano. Starts very minimally, picks up, adds piano layers.
5. *(6:43)—Choral again. Blissful, relatively quiet.
6. *(5:58)—A solo voice emerges and repeats a lamenting line.
7. (2:53)—The piano is so heavily chopped up here this is almost minimalist noise.
8. (4:50)—Easygoing avalanche noise shading into spare choral noise shading into broken refrigerator noise.
9. (1:54)—Woozy, solo piano.
10. *(6:42)—Wispy, gauzy vocal tape noise. Peaceful.