Netherlands-based Sietse van Erve is a musician who makes experimental music of the ambient and drone variety. He also has other interests in psychedelic post, singing/songwriting, and post-rock. He has released music in both MP3 and CD-R formats, and his work has appeared on numerous compilations and mixes
Orphax is not a new name to me having run across his work uploaded to the Internet Archive although at the time I didn‘t know his real name. His As the stone falls it won't come up again EP (2002) is my first memory of this artist. A single 18-minute piece of glitchy, down-tempo beats, layered in dark drones, sweet melodies, and soft ambient sounds, there are moments on it that are hauntingly similar to this new CD-R release.
The soft, hazy, greenish-yellow hue of the streetlight depicted on the cover art gives a visual pointer as to overall sonic ambiance to be heard on Drowning In A Pool Of Trees. The initial one-minute segment of pristine field recordings (wind blowing leaves on trees, birds singing) doesn’t give much of a hint at the dark tones and deep ambient rumblings that will soon follow. Slightly dissonant melodica, the sputter of a contact microphone as it brushes against an object, and some distorted noise add ominous textures to the mix. About one-third of the way into the piece, a choral drone fades in, something akin to an Eastern mantra followed closely by a layer of wavering, swelling, synthetic tones, both of which add a stratum of tension to the already slowly building, worrying atmosphere. This tense, perturbing ambiance continues to develop and evolve during the course of about the next seven minutes until it gradually dissolves into a haze of static hiss, the rumblings of wind passing through a contact mic, and crunching noises before the unspoiled field recordings reappear once again bringing the composition to a placid close.
Whereas many recent drone works seem fall into the rut of merely offering the same old run-of-the-mill sound, Orphax manages to avoid that pitfall by skillfully juxtaposing different layers of complementary textures and sound. Drowning In A Pool Of Trees is a very deliberate, well-designed, and expertly executed composition showing Orphax in one of this finest moments.
|
and 