Glacial and icy are two words that are regularly used to describe music coming out of Iceland and many will opt for these adjectives when describing Sketches For Albinos. Yet, through overuse, this kind of shorthand ends up meaning very little.
Environment obviously plays a part in the creative process but such simplified associations are often misleading. They would be particularly misplaced here since this solo project is by a musician, Matthew Collings, who actually originates from a small village in Suffolk.
Collings does however concede that his new surroundings may have some influence on his music and has spoken admiringly of other Icelandic artists, the best of which "feed off the isolation positively". Perhaps, also it is not being too fanciful to see some link between the name of his project and the Icelandic climate which shifts between long and short periods of daylight. After all, this is an important consideration for albinos given that their delicate skin is susceptible to overexposure to the sun.
Then again. the stripped down minimalism of his compositions makes it entirely fitting that this album should be released on Japan's Nothings66 label.
This is music which seems more dedicated to the deconstruction than the reconstruction of sound , creating a sonic collage by removing and reconfiguring key elements. Collings admits that the guitar is the only instrument he plays well but this does not stop him from feeding in fragments of piano, strings or delicate percussion. All these elements are then reworked through a laptop with other ingredients like speech fragments or hushed vocals being added to the mix as he sees fit.
These spare arrangements produce a wintry ambience not dissimilar to that of Sweden's Library Tapes, or to the atmospheric works of Ben Frost or Tim Hecker, both of whom Collings has toured with. As with each of these artists, there is an air of restraint and detachment which finds beauty in melancholy. For a previous release (Red) Collings spoke of wanting to create a mood which was part euphoric and part tragic.
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Many tracks on this album are sad in the same way that William Basinski's monumental Disintegration Loops are; there is something haunting about being reminded of the fragility and transience of recorded sound. Yet, while Basinski's pieces are long and hypnotic, Collings favours brevity. A track like Anna Karina , for instance, seems complete even though it lasts just over a minute.
In contrast to these moments of calm, there are busier tracks like Kids With No Energy which uses broken beats to create a more fragmented sound or A Meeting At The Merry-Go-Round which is the record's most shoegaze orientated tune. These may be wild at heart but taken as a whole the strength of this record lies in control and economy.
The most effective pieces are those with simple, repeated refrains, a case of less signifying more. Tunes like Skeye and She's With Snoban Now are as precious as faded family snapshots. They conjure up a world as if seen through a thin veil, where you can make out shapes even though the precise details remain blurred.
In addition to the thirteen album tracks, there are three excellent remixes by Argentinian Federico Durand and Japan's Moskitoo and Chihei Hatakeyama. The record company blurb is not in perfect English, but when they say that the music of Sketches For Albinos "will give a wavering to anyone's emotion", there is no difficulty in understanding the message they want to convey.
This is kind of quiet music that needs to be played loud.
Sketches For Albinos on MySpace
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