#2000s electronic

Mira Calix - “Sparrow” Routine Song released in 2000. Compilation released in 2001. IDM / Downtempo / Abstract

From critic Paul Simpson:

Born in Durban, South Africa, Chantal Passamonte moved to London in 1991. She worked at the record store Ambient Soho and helped organize a series of genre-nonspecific parties called Telepathic Fish. After working at 4AD, she became a publicist for Warp in 1994, additionally becoming a resident DJ at the label's club night, Blech. Signing to the label under the moniker Mira Calix, she released her first 12", Ilanga, in 1996, followed by the 1998 EP Pin Skeeling, which featured a remix by Boards of Canada. A Peel Session EP and debut full-length, One on One, both appeared in 2000, drawing from shoegaze as much as ambient and experimental techno.

Early in her career, Mira Calix was known for her unique approach to crafting IDM tracks. She didn't have much gear to actually create electronic music, so she opted to use nature sounds and objects instead. This approach would have a way of naturally imbuing her work with a uniquely organic sound. Other IDM producers were making organic-sounding stuff too at the time, but they were doing it with electronics while Mira Calix was literally doing it with nature. And her output just sounded different and a bit purer, too. On one release, she generated sounds with pebbles, and for 2003's Nunu EP, she used live insects. Following that, orchestral music would become a rather large part of her recording palette as well.

Which brings us back to 2000, with "Sparrow," a song that originally appeared on Mira Calix's debut album, One on One, and the following year appeared on Warp's Routine comp. "Sparrow" is a tune that's out there, but it's a track that sort of foreshadows the direction Mira Calix would be going in a few years later. One foot is firmly planted in her organic-themed IDM stylings, while the other foot is lunging towards her work with orchestration.

With "Sparrow," Mira Calix places her use of nature in the foreground and sets a bed of active and dreary string work behind, while running with a "let's record myself repeatedly banging my head against some drywall" type of drumbeat (I doubt that's how she actually created her thumpiest drums on here, but that's really what it sounds like). Now, you might be asking about those scritchy sounds in the front. What's she using to make that noise? I've no idea. For all we know, it could be a dead sparrow's beak lightly etching on a table. Is that why the song's called that? Maybe. Probably not. Could just be some pecking she recorded and then manipulated to a point where it didn't really sound like pecking at all. I dunno. Whatever it is, consider me intrigued by it. If you listen with headphones, especially earbuds, those unidentifiable sounds just ever so slightly tickle the ear, too.

And "Sparrow" is a song that manages to be emotive, yet reserved as well, as if there's a suppression of some kind of slowly festering and lurching melancholy underneath. That's all because of the strings, which start with a sitar-like residual buzz and then unpredictably proceed to grow and recede as the song progresses. And despite it reaching some high notes and a brief infusion of piano, there's still an underlying feeling of existential dread there. But maybe this interpretation says more about me than it does Mira Calix. Needless to say, I'm not going to be looking into this any further.

"Sparrow" is like an IDM version of a mullet. The business part, which are the sounds that indispensably make it an IDM track, are clearly in the front, while the party, which is all the orchestration and emotion, is in the back. However, in this case, the party just happens to be a funeral.