[posted 8 July 2008]

Latest solo release - Wakool

Recorded over a series of four Sunday afternoons, Wakool is an interrogation into an expanded range of techniques and gestures applied to instruments including banjo, electroacoustic guitar, bandura, and eukolin. In part an antidote to laborious studio process, this project privileges live stereo recordings without additional overdubs, processing or equalization. The varied and spontaneous nature of David’s effortless playing across an eclectic range of instruments was recorded transparently to direct the aural focus on the dynamics and nuances comprising each performance. In some ways Wakool is pure documentation of process, simply demonstrating David’s formidable range of concepts and techniques developed over an extraordinary period of experimentation and research commencing in the late 70s. On the other hand David’s meticulous preparation of each instrument combined with his prodigious knowledge of improvisational practice provides a complexity that negates the need for sophisticated studio process. Wakool stands as a testament to David’s sustained and unwavering commitment to improvisation, which he executes with enthusiasm, vigour and inventiveness that easily posits him as the most vital figure in the Australian musical avant-garde.

Philip Samartzis

reviews + mp3s

[posted 5 June 2007]

Recent release: apsomeophone

The evolution of experimental art music, alongside the evolution of the guitar from rock icon to sonic object, have both enjoyed healthy, idealogical intersections in the last forty years or so. This was arguably most prominent in the 70s and 80s, maybe before everyone got so fucking precious, as Rhys Chatham confirms in his essay "5 Generations of Composers at the Kitchen", we saw art music incorporating improvisatory techniques and rock gesture; we saw rock composers working with ideas drawn from the avant garde. Sometimes this was done consciously by the composer involved, and sometimes not.

Consciously or unconsciously, candlesnuffer covers a lot of ground on this record, demonstrating a cohesive understanding of extended guitar potentiality and infusing this with a deep insight into the techniques of the “traditional” post-war avant-garde (Ligeti, Cage, Berio, Penderecki, etc.). Simultaneously referencing everything from the GRM to Japanese folk to Bartok to devastating death rock, mended together with his unique style of prepared guitar, he creates a visceral performance language that would make any supposed “post” rocker shit their pants, and probably Boulez as well.

Through a broad range of techniques: preparation, music concrete, density, space, live, pre-recorded, stupid, serious, melodic, chaotic, candlesnuffer successfully encapsulates what’s exciting about being an experimental musician today: the citation of influences whilst remaining distinctive, a combination of pre-meditation and intuition, a blend of recognizable and other. What we hear is an approach, which simultaneously respects and disregards musical history to create something unique.

There is no one way, and there is no right way, but Candlesnuffer is asking some of the right questions. Improvisation, technology and composition all co-exist as one big and beautiful happy family on this record, the only sinister thing is that they’re all sleeping together.

In that dark, dank corner of the music world called experimental music where you are slagged for playing too many notes, for not using the right software, for not having the right box set, for having too few records, for not knowing that reissue, for not understanding “new folk” and God forbid for listening to Zappa, this music comes from a refreshingly pure, increasingly rare approach, a love of sound, a necessity of exploration, a knowledge of what’s been done and what can be done, and a compositional integrity that render musings of fuckwits who write liner notes irrelevant.

... Liner notes by Anthony Pateras ...

[posted 4 July 2006]