Dempster: Underground Overlays from the Cistern Chapel

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
OK, get this. These are recordings Dempster made in a giant cistern--an empty, two-million-gallon water tank--at Fort Worden, near Port Townsend in Washington state. The pieces take various instruments--conch, trombone, didgeridoo, Tibetan cymbals--and place them in this strange environment, where the music evolves around single notes that are allowed to rise or fall, fade or arise however. It's a fantastic exercise in pitch studies and abstract sonics, and, strangely, it works. Reminiscent of Terry Riley's recent work with the Rova Saxophone Quintet, this is for only the bravest listener. --Paul Cook

Tracks:

Conch Calling
Morning Light
John Diamond's Big Beautiful Brass Didijeridu: Didjerilayover
Secret Currents
Melodic Communion
Shell Shock
Cloud Landings

Amazon.com

OK, get this. These are recordings Dempster made in a giant cistern--an empty, two-million-gallon water tank--at Fort Worden, near Port Townsend in Washington state. The pieces take various instruments--conch, trombone, didgeridoo, Tibetan cymbals--and place them in this strange environment, where the music evolves around single notes that are allowed to rise or fall, fade or arise however. It's a fantastic exercise in pitch studies and abstract sonics, and, strangely, it works. Reminiscent of Terry Riley's recent work with the Rova Saxophone Quintet, this is for only the bravest listener. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

Smooth and Satisfying.......2003-03-31

When I first heard a snippet of this artwork I couldn't believe it wasn't synthesized. The sounds are utterly beautiful and of an unearthly style as one tone melts into another. All sounds are heard riding atop each other in wave after wave of reverbal bliss.

My favorite part is the transition from track 3 to 4 where the gruff and dark sound of Dempster's solo Didjeridu performance, which conjures visions of shadows and dark caverns, segues into the uplifting and souring sounds of trombones that lift one up and out from underground into an azure sky.

Many won't know what to make of this kind of music, but those of us who yearn for something truly spiritual, it satisfies with unwavering contentment.

a little night music.......2002-10-20

This is a great album to just kick back and float to: calm, somber horns recorded in a 2,000,000 gallon water tank (empty and accoustically bizarre) in the Pacific Northwest. The sounds are very spare, a little Eno/Ambient, a little ominous, excellent to use as white noise but still completely interesting. A chill-out classic.

Lovely and sonorous.......2002-07-11

The key thing with this album: don't think of it as classical. It shares more in common with Brian Eno's ambient works, slow changes in sounds and tonalities over time, or perhaps non-rhythmic electronica with repetition, evolving patterns, background drones. Morning Light, Secret Currents, and Melodic Communion are similar tracks, starting slow, building in complexity, then dropping back; the trombone and other instruments show aspects of Super Jupiter and Moog analog synth sounds. Shell Shock and Conch Calling are more dissonant, with Cloud Landings back to washes of brass. Didjerilayover is the only track that doesn't work so well- it turns out a little muddy, with the didjeridoo inflections lost in reverb.

It took me a while to get into the CD, including it in random walks through a 5-CD set in the changer. But I started noticing that, whenever an Underground Overlays track would come up, I'd pause and just listen, then go back to what I was doing when it ended. A lovely, gratifying, wonderful album.

music from under the earth.......1999-07-01

this was first CD from new albion i bought and has endeared the label to me- this is brave music that puts you into a new place.

trombones, conch shells, didgeridu and what might be voices combine... the cistern is almost an instrument unto itself. you can't tell where notes end and reverb begins. dempster's compositions are complex, layered and filled with longing.

this may not be for everyone; some friends have complained of the sounds inducing nausea, disorientation and general feelings of unwellness. i personally find it uplifting and haunting.

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