richard chartier

Further Materials

Back in stock! A sequel to the Other Materials compilation (released via Richard Chartier's own 3 Particles label), this album draws together the various compilation tracks released by the artist between the years 2002 and 2005. Many of these pieces take the form of miniatures, meaning they're both shorter and more condensed than Chartier's conventional output, the most succinct of these being the two-minute sound sculpture 'Tracing (Sketch For)' lifted from Raster Noton's Frequencies [Hz]. You'll find more substantial compositions here too, most notably 'How Things Change' taken from the Trente Oiseaux album For Morton Feldman. It's vintage Chartier, and not something to be missed by fans of his sophisticated hyper-minimalism. At the other end of the audibility scale there are a couple of Taylor Deupree collaborations on here: the Japanese, NTT-ICC-released 'Specification.eleven' and the 12k-published 'Specification.fourteen', both of which display tendencies towards more intelligible, less enigmatic sonic terrain, breaking up the intensity and austerity found elsewhere. Looking over the tracklisting, even the most dedicated followers of Chartier's work are bound to hear something they hadn't been able to track down previously, and for everyone else, this offers an ideal opportunity to get hold of music published on compilation titles that would otherwise be a nightmare to get hold of. Of all the pieces sequenced here, 'Tempt' (recorded live at Transmediale, Berlin) stands out as rather noisier (well, relatively speaking) and was apparently designed to drown out an Akufen set from a neighbouring room. It's hard to imagine these genteel drones and the occasional noise signal overspill keeping Marc Leclair's chopped up microhouse from bleeding through the walls, but it's a wonderful piece nonetheless. Chartier's music deserves a certain amount of reverence. His material is pieced together with an incredible amount of care and detail, something made all the more potent by the fact that you really have to consciously tune in and scour the music to hear it all. A great selection of music by one of the very finest electronic composers currently out there - Highly Recommended.