It's Wednesday, January 28th. I am in the train for my work, going from Amsterdam to Groningen. Due to some delay this became a three hour trip, so plenty of time to listen to some music and write reviews. At home I had already played the two releases Above the Din and The Two Edges, but now while driving it was something that amazed me so much. While the musician, Philip Halke, behind these two EP's is from Greece the music and concept fits so well in with the Dutch landscape.
To explain this I will first explain how the Dutch landscape is.
In The Netherlands we do not have any nature, instead we have agricultural land and cultural land (which can be the same of course). Every square centimetre in the Netherlands is managed, structured and controlled. Here in the Netherlands we subject everything to the Polder Model. Even "nature" is a victim of this way of organization. Where we need agricultural grounds we make them in to nice big squares for which me move small forestries, straighten streams and remove anything else that is in the way.
When we have some kind of cultural ground, like sand dunes and heathland we protect this with all our heart because it's so special. When a tree threatens to grow here we remove it. This under the name of nature control. We even import foreign species to keep our cultural grounds intact, a good example for this is the Highlander (a Scottish cow that is).
While on the other side of the coin in parts where we think nature would really nice, we dig a hole, plant some trees and other vegetation and pray that special birds and other animals will move there. At first we let it all grow a little wild, but as soon as nature threatens to take over we again get our chainsaw to control and manage it to our own demands.
Besides this control of everything another thing you notice during such a train ride is that everywhere you go in the Netherlands you find houses, farms, offices and other buildings. You can't go anywhere with out seeing those, or just hearing cars.
That is what we call the Netherlands. The interaction between nature and human society. Or rather how we manage the nature.
The two releases Above the Din and The Two Edges by the Greek musician Philip Halke fit completely in with the landscaping we do over here. The concept interaction between humans and nature play a certain role on both releases.
Especially on Above The Din we hear this distinct interaction between nature and urban areas. In a similar way as the Dutch use the environment, Halke uses sound of nature and urban areas. Recordings from the sea, birds, crickets, the sea are mixed well, and sometimes almost undefinable, with passing cars, people interaction, musical recordings and so more.
Above the Din is a delicate piece that shows very well the interaction between the two different worlds and because of the rough mixing it all sounds so real.
The Two Edges has another approach to a similar concept. The two tracks on this release have a more structured, controlled sound.
The first track is a piece build up from field recordings but this time heavy processed. It's not so much environmental music as it is micromusic. Soft drones are mixed with glitching items and clear recordings. It's a small structured composition from field recordings to a typical urban theme.
The second piece was written for a dance performance where the dancer is in control of all the sounds by movement. The sound sources used come from field recordings similar to on Above the Din. This track is probably the best example on both the releases of pure control of nature by humans. The interaction between the human movement and the sound shows a slow evolution going from clean sounds to heavy processed ones. It would have been lovely to see this performance take place. The concept behind this piece asks for a visual presentation.
And again The Two Edges is also a nice release worth checking out.
Above the Din and The Two Edges together show a complete story about human and nature interaction. This puzzles me also why they were not released as one release. Next time maybe one release would be better, though as stand-alone releases this also works out well.
Philip Halke has no website, but if you are interested in these releases, or want more info you can contact him through: philiphalke@ymail.com |
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