Description
Althoff, the master of kinetic sound sculpture, returns to machines for a new offering of textured compositions.
Knowing that I used these items for music-making, a friend recently gave me a large old aluminium pot lid with a beautifully flanged edge, just begging for some marbles to roll around in it. Attaching the lid to the platter of a slanted record player meant the marbles would gather at the lowest point, and roll when the lid rotated. Fixing a ‘bump-post’ in the path of the marbles pushed the marbles up the incline, to then roll down with extra volume. Fixing a wedge between the lid and the platter gave the lid a varying slant as it rotated, to also alter the speed and path of the marbles. Large round wooden beads sometimes replaced the glass marbles, and a plastic toy ball lled with tiny pellets was also added. Small tins with rolling aluminium tubes sounding their rims are heard on Track 8.
On some tracks, up to four rotating bowls, lids and trays are used. Some were recorded in one hit, and others were mixed down. Some distant percussion is also featured, recorded from behind the microphones as the machines played in front.
This release gives the lie to a previous title. “The last machines” CD, released in 2023, obviously weren’t. – Ernie Althoff
