Tidal/Peter Duimelinks Ablution mCD (A24)



In Judaism, ablution is the process of washing away physical and mental impurities. Upon completion, the mind and body are cleansed and renewed.



New York composer Tidal (David Brownstead) and Dutch composer Peter Duimelinks (Kapotte Muziek, Goem, THU20) collaborated on this work over the course of 2004-2005. The piece was traded back and forth between the two artists several times until it was fully realized.



Ablution is a contemplative work which explores darkness and light. Momentum ebbs and flows in soothing washes. Tones, hums, and brittle, crackling interludes intertwine to flesh out a murky smear of sound.



Ablution is approximately 20 minutes in length and packaged in a 5-inch sleeve. David selected photographs for the front and back covers which suggest submerging into darkness only to emerge into a blast of white light.



REVIEWS



Vital Weekly 538 (August 2006, Frans de Waard, Netherlands)

Perhaps by intent, but Peter Duimelinks is one of the few well-known names who however never released a full length CD on his own. He is part of THU20, Kapotte Muziek and Goem, did sound installations, recorded with Frank Bretschneider a CD in the Brombron series (see Vital Weekly 530) and could probably easily do one due to interest, but he just never did. This release doesn't change that. On 'Ablution' he works with Tidal, aka David Brownstead from New York. The two exchanged sound files back and forth in 2004-2005, going through various stagesof rework. "In Judaism, ablution is the process of washing away physical and mental impurities. Upon completion, the mind and body are cleansed and renewed." This miniCD with one track is a twenty minute deep dark rumble of colliding sounds. The basic is deep and dark, like highly processed field recordings, although the processing might have been generated by radical equalisation. On top there are light sparks flickering at a highly irregular shape. When listened on headphones, static and hiss seem to be part of the piece. It's a good and solid piece of music of highly dark ambient music. There isn't a specific role for either Tidal or Duimelinks: the mark of well made collaboration.



GAZ-ETA (September 2006, Tom Sekowski, Poland)

DJ / music creator Peter Duimelinks teams up with New York composer Tidal [David Brownstead] for a 20 minute piece called "Ablution" [which in Judaism is a cleansing process of washing away physical and mental impurities]. Created over a span of a year, music on the record was traded back and forth a number of times until a final result was achieved. When you look at the CD cover work, you're faced with utter darkness. Dark blue waves of some sort of fire are seen on the front, while the back features either five burning candles or five car lights. Like the album art, the music is just as eerie. Contemplating who knows what for who knows whom, the duo stretch out long, spooky passages of pure sound over a forest of background audio. Delicate percussive effects are heard throughout that resemble high-pitched water drops dripping from the walls of a dark cave. The cavernous sound continues to delight as the piece draws on, only getting more scarier by the minute. Glistening star-like sounds emerge three-quarters of the way through, while a deep floating bass sound emerges near the end. While the mood is quite eerie, the overall atmosphere is rather calm. It's a shame the duo condensed their work to a 20 minute piece. There's huge potential waiting to be discovered just as the piece is coming to a close. Next time around, I hope the duo will stretch their combined possibilities over a longer timeframe.



Chain DLK (September 2006, Eugenio Maggi, Italy)

A collaborative one-track mini-cd from US Tidal (aka David Brownstead, ex-666 Volt Battery Noise, and currently involved in the militan zionist project Barzel) and Dutch Peter Duimelinks (known for his activity in THU20, Kapotte Muziek and Goem), clothed in two splendid photos by Alluvial's own Kevin Wienke. The work is inspired by the Jewish purification ritual, but as the cd gives no further information about that I will stick to the music - which by the way is excellent. "Ablution" features a powerful low-end drone probably created by mixing field recordings and some filtered instrumentation. Nothing new under the sun under this aspect, if you're familiar with the works of López, Meelkop, mnortham, Nehil, etc., but this surely ranks among the best in the niche. The soundscape is obscure and even frightening, but not bleak - which is probably the perfect way to portray an intense spiritual experience.



Touching Extremes (October 2006, Massimo Ricci, Italy)

That's right, you heard right: another example of 20-minute CD that needs to be listened in "repeat" mode - possibly in the very early hours of the morning - to fully appreciate its profound energy, which in this case is enough to have one's heartbeat and breath conforming to the subsonic pulse and the suspension created by some astounding underground rumbles. "Ablution" is also made of static high frequencies similar to the noise of pressure in water tubes, metallic tampering, rustling and shaking glass and stones - presumably. Everything sounds like engulfed by a cloud of gas, nebulous halos and hissing auras surrounding all the contours. No points of reference whatsoever, just an indefinite extension of that environmental shadow which wraps the all the best outings of the genre. It's a CD that should be loved by fans of installation soundworks at large and - although this music is a little more immaterial - of Jonathan Coleclough's most rarefied, matchless substances.



T H E W I R E M A G A Z I N E 273 (November 2006, Jim Haynes)

I'd like to believe that Peter Duimelinks and Tidal's David Brownstead met in a dank warehouse in the middle of nowhere to record the source material for Ablution. But even if they didn't create it in an abandoned space, as Lustmord and Lethe have done in the past, Brownstead and Duimelinks pursue a similar agenda of coupling evocative drones with performative gestures. Throughout Ablution's 20 minutes, the pair are heard throwing objects around, extracting the choicer timbres which result, and processing them into a watery ambience. As anxiously banged pieces of metal evolve into a distant choir of chiming phase patterns, swells of blackened sound alter the album's watery metaphors from mildly wet to ominously oceanic.