Richard Garet - Winter - 4.0 DVD - Leerraum [ ] BGN, WHITE_LINE, 2008. Richard Garet was one of the featured sound artists in NVO’s recent EXTRACT book/CD, and claims a place as one of the more accomplished soundworkers of the last few years. With a relatively modest, but highly influential catalogue of CD’s under his belt, this latest piece for leerraum [ ] in glorious 4.1 surround sees his pallette just as reduced, if a little more dense than on his Intrinsic Motion works for NVO. This slowly shifting piece demonstrably shifts and sways between sequences of higher register sounds, harmonic tonalities that shimmer and pan around the surround field, constantly changing in hue and density. This work calls to mind Ryoji Ikeda’s Music for Anechoic Chamber some years back, using subtle changes of sound pressure and dynamics to activate the senses and create subtle depths and gradations. Garet unashamedly reduces the work to near silence at significant points, and then slowly re-introduces textural activity, perhaps the sound of the surf gently rolling over loose shingles, and maybe dripping water in empty caverns. Certainly , Garet has garnered some attention for his superbly crafted transitions from digital abstraction to snippets of field recordings, as demonstrated here. Perhaps one of Garet’s finer recent moments, I can recommend a quiet room, overlooking dramatic scenery to best appreciate this work, although the 4.1 presentation easily transcends a regular stereophonic offering by a mile. Once again, leerraum [ ] has added a mark of quality and uniqueness to it’s roster in the form of Richard Garet. Absolutely Essential. Richard Garet: «Winter / is a surround 4.0 aural construction of sounds focused on Winter as a subject. This interpretation was made from aural material recorded during December 2007 and March 2008 within the same 16 foot perimeter location in Astoria, Queens, NY.» Richard Garet - Winter Max Schaefer, Earlabs, 2008 Where much of Richard Garet's previous work has been taut, incisive, commanding, and stained by a nagging sense that absence was haunting it all, Winter is an album of wide-ranging musical awareness and visceral power, and often unwinds as though fast-cut footage of a distant planets tumultuous weather system. Its inner sanctum of sound knows a consistency of tone, long flat line hums that reappear periodically throughout, but they are often overshadowed or entirely pushed away by chattering micro-organisms, the pattering of rain, bush fires, and other anonymous sounds that pound like exploding stars. All the same, these elements are incorporated into relatively simple, balanced phrases whose constant reorganization seems to unlock in them a certain inner force. Imagination and control of design thereby predominate, and the ensuing trajectory, texture, and detail of the music is fascinating, bemusing, hypnotic, sometimes disturbing, sometimes consoling, ultimately hinting at a mysterious, elemental beauty. As with past efforts such as L'avinir, there is a balance of spontaneity and intentionality. It's found in the way the 'digial' and 'natural' spheres quite unexpectedly interrupt each other, pushing the piece off into another area, or when they otherwise fuse or clash in a manner suggestive of some over-arching structure. As an intricate sonic world, it's beyond reach and always highly vulnerable. Richard Garet - Winter Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, 2009 A compelling release by Richard Garet, who utilizes an even-handed assortment of concrete and environmental sources and studio-generated emissions to fabricate a 51-minute piece that doesn’t actually expose unusual accidents or sudden disclosures but is constructed – as usual with this artist – with great care, intelligence and what we always look for in these kinds of soundscape - compositional shrewdness. The contingent aspects of a lengthy track constitute the grounds of its influence in a listener’s mind, Garet deservedly standing among the finest sound assemblers in that sense: extreme minutiae and unrevealed details appear almost unnoticed at first, then start playing a lead role in pointing the music to a direction where the improvement of alertness seems to be the focal point of research. It is indeed possible to depict sensations linked to an advanced spiritual level while avoiding a pathetic self-projection towards the thereafter (the typical error of pretenders). Sounds of rain and beeping frequencies carry exactly the same significance if one manages to dispose of a distrustful view of daily life’s occurrences, and the droning caresses exploited by the composer to set the general mood in “conscious tranquillity” mode are not smelling of marketing analysis. The ultimate outcome is a most welcome evenness, eloquence finally affirmed without the need of shocking or brainwashing.