John Hudak Helen Marie: Reinterpretations 2 x CD (A11)

When John Hudak recorded the "Don't Worry About Anything; I'll Talk To You Tomorrow" compact disk for
Alluvial in early 1998, through a series of events, we ended up in possession of an extra piece. We had
always intended to release it in some format but remained unsure how to use it. We approached John
with the idea of presenting the piece to other composers, many of whom we had in mind prior to raising
the idea with John. Upon receiving John's OK, we set about sending it to the composers we chose and a
couple of John's choosing. The project ended up taking a lot longer than anticipated. It was well worth
the wait. The original track, the source material, is the first track heard. This is followed by Jason
Lescalleet. Jason created a shifting, moving tapestry of sounds with beautiful ebb and flow. Marc Behrens
uses his signature, understated approach to create a piece full of layers with focus on the nuances of tiny
sounds. Sukora's contribution uses small sounds that are almost imperceptible with periods of near
silence. Peter Duimelinks explores the extremes of the original by focusing on the highest frequencies and
lowest, bassy rumbles. These are blended with a gentle rhythmic pulse that is easier felt than heard.
John himself created yet another rich soundscape that is hard to imagine having been coaxed from the
original. Francisco Lopez approaches his track with a violent furor that culminates with stark silence. Eric
Lanzillotta pays homage to an earlier phase of John's work from his days using the analogue tape. His
piece rumbles steadily along and crushes the original beyond recognition. Frans de Waard presents a
piece varied with buzzes and whirling sounds compacted into so many layers. The final statement is from
Leif Elggren. It sounds as though he ran the original backwards in layers. It is accented with loud,
piercing blasts of static interference. The variety over the two compact disks is exactly what one would
hope for from a project of this scope. It is varied, confrontational and cohesive. This is a beautiful
statement that compliments what John does best- single-minded, gentle soundscapes that are deeply
personal and peaceful. John's compositions set a calm, serene mood for the listener. Fans of his style will
not be disappointed. The CD's are packaged in a 12 page booklet which includes photo work from John
Hudak and Rachael Jackson. This is a limited edition of 500 copies.

SOLD OUT

 

Reviews

Vital Weekly 312, Netherlands, Roel Meelkop

This double album is actually a remix album, including remixed versions of one track by John Hudak: "don't worry about anything; I'll talk to you tomorrow". This track was intended for earlier release, but Hudak decided against it in favour of having it reworked by other artists first. The artists are: Jason Lescalleet, M. Behrens, Sukora, Peter Duimelinks, Francisco Lopez, Eric Lanzillotta, Frans de Waard and Leif Elggren. And yes, that sounds like lot of minimalism. The first track is the original by Hudak, a silent piece of high tones, weaved intricately together, with some feedbacks here and there. A very mesmerizing track, that seems to be forever changing and still staying the same throughout. An amazing work of great strength. Jason Lescalleet picks up from there, with an even higher tone, oscillating through my room. sounds like a case of extreme filtering. Added later is a very gentle lower layer of sound that starts to play with the first layer. A very warm and icy! piece, so that's good stuff of course. M. Behrens seems to take a somewhat more deconstructive approach: sudden cuts are pretty frequent and the dynamic range is larger. And although the source material is still predominant, other sounds are inserted as well (but I presume they were all derived from the source material). Again this is a gentle track, but with a little more surprises, thanks to the composition of the material. Next up is Sukora, with one of the most quiet pieces I've ever heard by him. After pumping the volume way up, one can hear a sound that seems stretched or delayed and that stops every now and then. Putting the volume back to normal, the listenening experience becomes rather in the vein of Guenter or some of the works of Lopez: unless you're in an anechoic chamber, environmental sounds start playing a seriously big role in the piece, at some points getting so obtrusive, that I'd like to skip to the next track......Not one of his best, I think. The last ! track on the first disc is by Peter Duimelinks. He sticks pretty close to the original, but the stereo spectrum is wider and more varied and at some point sounds seem to start cancelling each other out. Besides, some ultra low frequencies appear (watch you speakers with this track!), that fill the room up to the knees in a deep vibration. Pretty heavy! Disc two starts with another track by John Hudak, sounding from far away, dreamy and almost absentminded, but closing in slowly at times. Again a wonderful track. Francisco Lopez' track is a fierce and powerful version of the the original, not in volume, but in density. Many layers of soft sounds intertwine and slowly build up to a crescendo in the mid frequencies and then it's cut off and there seems to be nothing anymore for a long time (which is not the case of course). A good piece once more. Eric Lanzillotta is actually the first one to really take a big step away from the original sound: a low drone with some flutters and a hiss are all that's left of the clear and crisp sound of Hudak. Almost as if one is listening to it under a thick wool blanket. Dark but strong. Frans de Waard has made several loops from the original material; his track slowly fades from loop to loop in a very sober and subdued way. Nothing fancy, but in a strange way very close in effect to Hudak'! s original. Well done indeed. The last track is by Swedish enigma Leif Elggren, who succeeds in creating a gentle noise piece with as dense a layering as Lopez and as tense a sound as Duimelinks. In origin close to Hudak's material, but in effect far removed from it. But again a good track! So there you go: minimalism is still very much alive and kicking and what's more, it's very differentiated as well. An excellent release.

Wire 218, April 2002, UK, (Jim Haynes)

Thinking this was going to be released on vinyl, John Hudak composed two distinct movements for Don't Worry About Anything; I'll Talk to You Tomorrow.  His minimalist construction takes as its source material a phone conversation between Hudak and his mother a year before she died.  Nervous of potential intrusions from surface noise, Hudak and Alluvial scrapped the vinyl idea.  Instead Hudak extended one of the two movements into the Helen Marie CD that came out a few years ago.  Reinterpretations complements that Hudak piece with a handful of reworkings/remixes by his likeminded comtemporaries.  Both on the original and this unreleased piece, Hudak has stripped the Syballic content from the voice, leaving behind a series of slow moving passages of crystalline frequencies, which suggest a poetic meancholia.  Disc one features that unreleased piece, plus reworkings by Jason Lescalleet, M Behrens, Sukora, and Peter Duimelinks, which are either too sympathetic or synonymous with the source to add anything to Hudak's original.  Disc two on the other hand, finds Francisco Lopez, Eric Lanzillotta, Frans de Waard, and Leif Elggren disposing of Hudak's fragility by pulverising sound into dense textural washes.