Project B2 01 Orphax: Live Circles Release date: September 13, 2019 Label: Moving Furniture Records Catalogue number: MFR077 Reviewed format: CD Welcome to a review in the Project B2 series in which (like previously in Sonic Picks) I review music with a generally âlighterâ kind of sound through review submissions from artists and labels as well as the occasional personal picks. This review is of a release I picked myself this time. Today I have for you the new album by an artists whose activities in experimental music Iâve been following for well over a year now, Orphax (Sietse van Erve). Sietse has been active performing his own music as Orphax as well as releasing many albums, singles and miscellaneous releases for many years now and has also been always been very active in releasing music by a variety of well-known and new names in experimental music and sound art through his label Moving Furniture Records as well as organising various concerts and events of artists he invites, like the excellent series Ruisburo which I often attend here in The Netherlands. Previously I reviewed the series of albums that HaarvĂśl mostly released through Moving Furniture Records, the last part of which I will write at some point but for today I thought itâs time to put the spotlight on Orphaxâs own music with this 1 track live album titled Live Circles. Live Circles is a reworked and mixed version of two direct live recordings of performances of Orphaxâs piece Circles as performed at IKLECTIK and Centrala in the UK earlier this year. The recordings are seamlessly blended into each other, creating a dynamic captivating progression in Orphaxâs drones that blends bright uplifting atmosphere with darker shades of texture. The album doesnât feature audience noise. Live Circles is presented on CD in a neat 4 panel cardboard sleeve featuring (uncredited on the packaging) artwork by Orphax on the front cover. A neat composition of thin black circles on a warm yellow-orange background that expresses the pulsating tones of the music quite well but also adds a classy 70âs like LP cover touch to the design of this release. Besides the cover artwork the design of the package is quite minimalist but on point, featuring artist name, title and catalogue number in Orphax signature lowercase type on the spine, credits and label logo on the back as well as a nice written introduction to the album by Sietse on the inside left panel. A great touch and Orphaxâs explanation of the influences of the environment at the places he performed on his performances is also enlightening and a nice guide for listening. The CD itself features minimal print, with only the artist name, album title and label logo featuring on it. Letâs focus on the music on Live Circles itself now. Being a 1-track Drone album I thought itâd be good to approach this album with a general interpretation and afterwards a short analysis of several time points part of the 37 minute track to have a look at the various layers part of Live Circles. Live Circles in general is a Drone piece which has this captivating theme of pulsations within it, the âcircleâ aspect part of the textures in Live Circles can be found in various manners within the various synth layers and eventual progression of these over time. Having seen two performances of Circles live before, right from the start I could recognise the curious juxtaposition of some kind of distant dark tension and the buzzing sharpness inherent in several of the synth layers within Circles. Live Circles can best be described as a mostly liquid morphing organism in which the at times tense or subtly fluctuating chords created by the layers synth tones hint at either a safe but at the same time also fascinating situation or a bright peaceful sensation enhanced by the sharp buzzing of the synths combined with sharp but not piercing high tones or a combination of both kinds of atmospheres as the music blends these at various points. The strong bass vibrations throughout as well as the rich detailed stereo movement also make for a very impressive listening experience where speed ups and other changes in bass tone and pattern add exciting sonic events making for a Drone piece which is still quite minimalist in composition but also full of progression and never meanders into an idle stretch of tones. The waves of tone, at times ticks from the gated effect or pulsations of the synths especially nearing the middle of Live Circles make the Drone also feel very physical even if the synths have quite a strong filtered sound to them throughout. Indeed only the ending climax is when Orphax opens up the filter of the buzzing synth fully to expose the sharp radiant tone within and fades out with more drones starting, everything moving to a place in the distance. Jumping to a few time points in Live Circles, at 6:39 you can hear a great example of the intriguing juxtaposition of the highly resonant phaser affected warm buzzing drone synth with a dissonant high pitched tone creating tension but also calming the listener as even this high pitched bright tone could be interpreted as a warm shining light. At 13:33 the piece transitions within a similar kind of juxtaposition to a section in which the phasing synth drone feels like a sniffed river stream, a calming spring like ambience is emitted from the bassy but also liquid texture of the synth. The hollow tone accompanying the drone pulsates in an exciting ear massaging pattern creating a hollow kind of texture wave, eventually fading out. At 22:08 we can feel a didgeridoo like kind of entrancing pattern created within the phased drones by a gating effect or sequencer. The filtered synth tones subtly overflow you and a buzzing synth enters adding high pitched textural elements to the mixture. The pulsating synth eventually drops in pitch and fades out revealing a recognisable warm drone sound. Indeed Live Circles features quite a lot of variation in its progression but there are also recurring drones and textures that add a nice consistency to the piece and act as reference points to grab onto while listening if you feel like your mind wandered off a bit too far while listening. Orphax does also point this out in his written introduction, that the listening experience of Live Circles doesnât necessarily need to mean the full attentive kind of listening but often felt more like a kind of trip the audiences had in their thoughts and applying this shifting in and out of thoughts while listening the subconscious effect of the music is indeed very inspiring and calming, the occasional dissonance and darkness triggering a healthy kind of urgency from the music which keeps it fresh and definitely not predictable, also on repeated listens. At 30:32 we enter the final climax of Live Circles which happens quite gradual but is also definitely very thrilling in its nature. Featuring multiple types of drone pulsations, both âroundâ and choppy Live Circles âorganismâ slowly starts to grow bigger and bigger, seemingly morphing into its final life form. Indeed this might make it seem a bit Horror like, but this is definitely how this ending felt like to me. A warm but sharp stream of bright warm buzzing synth totally engulfing you into an overwhelming stream of highly resonant sound and it feels amazing. To conclude this review of Live Circles I would say that especially Orphaxâs kind of Drone music is especially inspiring for a whole lot of interpretations of the âmeaningâ, subconscious imagery or aural sensation you feel while listening and indeed you as a listener will definitely have a different kind of listening experience than I did but as always I hope this review gave you an idea of the qualities and sonic imagery on this live album through my own review and analysis of a few points in the albumâs timeline. Live Circles is a great aural documentation of the live performances of Circles and Orphaxâs fine reworking and mix of the two live recordings used for the album allow you to have a quite similar experience to a live performance of Circles within your preferred listening environment and I highly recommend this live album for fans of Drone and (experimental) electronic music in general. This is top-notch music you can listen to again and again, a very fine release. Definitely go check Live Circles out. The limited edition CD version and download of Live Circles are available from the Moving Furniture Records Bandcamp page here: https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-circles
