Sound and Stone

1. Jasmine Guffond: Part 1
2. Paul Jebanasam: Part 2
3. Farwarmth: Part 3
4. Tomonari Nozaki: Part 4
5. Leyland Kirby: Part 5
6. Steven M Halliday: Part 6
7. Machinefabriek: Part 7
8. Monty Adkins: Part 8
9. Yves De Mey: Part 9

download and cassette on Composer Built, October 2018

Sound and Stone is a truly unique album based on the incredible sound stones of Hannes and Klaus Fessmann. For the first time, some of the world’s most forward-thinking music producers have been given exclusive access to the world's first virtual sound stone.

Throughout the first half of 2018, Jasmine Guffond, Paul Jebanasam, Afonso Ferreira (Farwarmth), Tomonari Nozaki, James Leyland Kirby, Monty Adkins, Yves De Mey, Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) and Steven M Halliday sculpted a breath-taking suite of modern sound stone music.

Available here


Reviews

Just Outside

Sound stones are sonic sculptures created by the father-son team of Klaus and Hannes Fessmann.  This recording, I believe the first on the composer-built imprint, collects interactions between the stones and nine musicians. The stones themselves, wetted and played by rubbing with one's fingers and hands (possibly bowed and/or struck as well?), produce a range of ringing tones, sometimes with a pleasing roughness to them, other times more pure--depending on the instrument used, the tones, their pitch range, etc. varies. But generally speaking, we're in drone territory, sometimes augmented by electronics. Depending on how they're handled, they can lend themselves to music that's a bit too close to Eno-esque New Age for my taste (Farwarmth) or wonderfully dark and ominous (Machinefabriek, aka Rutger Zuydervelt). I'd also single out Monty Adkins' contribution for special praise. Most of the the others fall somwehere between these poles, always enjoyable and compact (playing times in the five minute range) with greater or lesser graininess, not too distant from what listeners may have experienced via labels like Unfathomless.

 

SoundStones

SoundStones