TL032. Allum / Awaida / MacKinnon / Sarre - Beckoning For Closeness

The Beckoning for Closeness installation “toys with the physicality of sound” and so too does the audio release TL032 Beckoning For Closeness which draws together and sequences the audio components of the installation. Sound collage, spoken word, and ambient composition developed by Tom Allum, in collaboration with Mayma Awaida, Tony Sarre, and Lincoln MacKinnon, lead the listener toward the detailed intersection of synthesised and recorded sonic environments.

On ‘Beckoning For Closeness’ the voice of Tony Sarre provides insight into the nature of touch from the perspective of a blind person. The listening experience we assume to be sensorily aural, but through suggestion of sight and touch we perceive the possibility of expanding this listening experience — if not through actual seeing and feeling, certainly through conceptual or imagined seeing and feeling.

‘Dry Leaves Soundscape’ presents scrunching, crackling leaves supported and accentuated by tonal synthesis, which itself is subtly micro-pulsing, crackling, and degrading. Compositionally this piece foregrounds the leaves field recording. Where commonly a field recording may set the scene, here the leaves take the lead role.

‘Sound Collage of Recordist/ Artist/ Blind Person’ is a vivid presentation of the fascination and stimulation sound can evoke in a group of sonic explorers. For those with a deep love of sound this work is quite elating, as one listens to the listeners. Perspectives shift throughout this piece from that of ‘the bystander’ to the impossibility of existing within the fabric of a resonating material.

‘Daintree’ closes the album, involving more ambient musical composition techniques and existing in the imagined, synthesised sonic environment — though evidently informed by field recordings and the preceding works. Elongated sections of upper mid-range fizz hover just out of reach of detailed listening level drawing the listener in. Juxtaposed with a denser synthesised section and embellished with melodic fragments and/or rhythms on piano. These contrasting sections highlight detail across the board.

TL032 Beckoning for Closeness rewards the listener who “attune[s] their senses and engage[s] with attentiveness and consideration.”

releases September 6th, 2021