Darren McClure is not afraid to experiment and abstract himself from conventional and familiar forms. He is neither afraid to establish a connection with his previous works.
Softened edges takes strange turns and unsuspected directions, Darren McClure's emphasis is open and complex and yet extremely focused.
Rhythm and melody are elements that Darren McClure has managed to incorporate to his work without necessarily clashing with the lucid and conscious level of abstraction and randomness that is so characteristic of his sound; Softened edges could be McClure's most daring and complex work to date although they are hints of rhythm on his organic textures and grainy noises, and melodic elements isolated surrounded by layers of sines, drones and noise.
Softened edges is a great successful effort to take emotions to strange places and unlikely conditions, it combines and confronts the best of two words: the effort to make music and the effort to make non-music.
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I asked a few questions to Darren McClure about his release...
Q. What do you feel are the biggest differences between your previous release Aki and Softened edges and what is the importance of this particular release in your process as an artist?
A. The main difference between these recordings is that i used field recordings much more in "Softened edges". The first track on Aki used location recordings of a nearby temple and the sound of footsteps walking towards it over a gravel path; but thats about it really. In Softened edges, I decided i wanted to use found sounds much more, mainly as texture or subtle tones, so some are processed beyond recognition. however, the track "distance" is a pure, unprocessed recording of a thunder storm, which becomes more processed toward the end, but mostly it's untreated. The reason i included field recording to such a degree was because I was focussing the tracks to be a release on the land of label, which investigates the beauty of the sounds that naturally surround us every day.
Q. If you have to point out what was the most important learning after composing and recording Softened edges, what would that be?
A. Well, probably field-recording techniques, which in my case are very basic, but i definitely made some discoveries relating to microphones/recording levels/handling, and then EQing the recordings afterwards to get rid of unwanted sounds/frequencies. Also, the incorporation of field recordings into the tracks took some thought, as I didn't want to just "bolt them on", and as many of them were textural, I wanted to add them in such a way that they didn't overcrowd or become too much in the foreground of the music.
Q. You think there are elements like movies, records, cities, buildings, people,... that you can directly or indirectly link to the process of creating Softened edges?
A. Definitely lots of different things were inspirational during the process of creating Softened edges. Nature and the really differing seasons in japan alter my mood, and maybe shape the direction of tracks, this especially relates to the kind of field recordings possible: thunder in summer, snow melting in winter etc. Other things such as where I live in Japan (Matsumoto) is a pretty easy-going place, and my day to day life isn't so stressful, so my music will never be too noisy/distorted etc. At the same time, I don't really like overly clean/cute/sweet music either, I love stuff that has a bit of edge, but not so much that it feels too dark. As for people, i have friends who invite me to perform and improvise in tokyo, and this feeds into how I worked on softened edges: it is a mixture of composed/arranged material and more improvised sessions. and of course all the artists meet/collaborate/exchange ideas on the internet really help my music... |
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