eleh - return/retreat 2xlp set
£
38
$
50
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
eleh - return/retreat (important records) (retreat is imprec 277, return is imprec 278) - ltd to 300 copies (128/300)
Retreat/Return is a collection of exploratory sound assemblages. Like last year's set of mailorder only releases these pieces came together during improvised research sessions during work for the next Eleh full length which will be released via Touch in 2010. New timbral richness, tonal expansion and deep synthesis make these pieces rather different from previous work.
This is alas not the version with the envelope of photographs, i was about 30 seconds too late for that, but i'm guessing i'll never see this again anyway. (it hurts to sell this)
this is brand new and played once, both lps fit into a plastic sleeve that is provided and are ludicrously beautiful!
reviewed by mapsadaisical...
So just who is the mysterious Eleh? I’ve heard various names mentioned, some more plausible than others. But so rigorous and scientific in their approach are some of the records that I can only imagine that they are being produced in a lab by a team of people in white coats, studying wave forms, surrounded by glowing valves (lest we forget, this is an act who called one track “Pulsing Tone Study For Seven Oscillators”. Oh yeah, parts one and two.). These two new records are said by Important to be comparatively spontaneous in their approach, tossed off in the rehearsals for Eleh’s next full length on Touch, but Retreat and Return feel no less substantial than we have come to expect.
That is not to say that these aren’t noticeably different from previous Eleh drone epics. There are nine tracks spread across these two LPs, with only one stretching out sidelong. And not just that -whisper it quietly, but there are actually traces of overt rhythm and melody in here, albeit at their most minimalist. The opening pieces of both Retreat and Return are Radiophonic workshop pieces, explorations of different analogue effects, typefied by low pulsations and alien high-pitched chatter (which brought to mind some of Pauline Oliveros’s more extra-terrestial work). In fact, so high-pitched are the tones on “Music For Jan Wilsgaard” (a tribute to – blimey, I’d NEVER have guessed this – an ex-chief designer at Volvo) that my cats noticed them before I did, leaping out of the catflap to sit outside in the rain rather than hear another second. The real treasure is located on the B Side of Return. “Dawn Fade For Serge Modular” (Serge Modular being ex-chief designer at Citroen. Actually, that it is a lie, a Serge Modular is a synth) is another Eleh monster: huge, deep, trepanning vibrations settling into throbbing patterns at around 60, 75, and 90Hz. From amongst this most unlikely source material emerges life: an insectoid chirrup gradually eats away at the surrounding structures before singing unencumbered into the dark winter sky for a full ten minutes, the repetition and phased layers making it clear that this is much less a journey into the heart of nature and much more another entrancing Eleh voyage into the heart of sound.
The ideas may be simple, but they are brilliantly executed and recorded, making listening to Eleh an ever-fascinating experience. These are no exception. Available now, in frighteningly-limited quantities, from
price rating
