Wrekmesiter Harmonies Release Recordings Made in Public Places

Chicago-based sound artist J.R.Robinson has been creating live, ambient tonefields in museums around the US and Europe over the past two years including the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Art Center in Berlin. His band, Wrekmeister Harmonies, features an ever changing line-up of musicians including members of the Jesus Lizard, Tortoise, US Maple, Bride of No No and the Vandermark 5. Recordings Made In Public Spaces volume oneas the name suggests, is a compilation of some of that Wrekmeister Harmonies have created for some of these venues.

Sounding something like old O Yuki Conjugate mixed with hints of John Zorn and Robert Fripp just to make it interesting, Recordings Made In Public Spaces volume oneis a huge sonic cathedral in which your ears can get lost in. Waves upon waves of cascading guitars run into each other to create a distorted curtain of sheer beauty that's as haunting as it is perplexing. Wrekmeister Harmonies are absolute geniuses at the way they're so easily able to manipulate found sounds and musical instruments into this massive wall of noise that while not appearing to be musical actually is.

The found sounds scattered throughout the three songs on Recordings Made In Public Spaces volume onegive the pieces a soul and create the basis for the haunting atmospherics that the rest of the instrumentation fills in. It's an eerie record that's so big with so many different things going on in the background it's actually best to activate your sense of disbelief and just allow your mind to wander around the sonic cathedral that Wrekmeister Harmonies constructs.

This is truly hypnotic and expansive stuff. It's one thing to actually listen to this record on headphones or on a stereo, but one can only imagine how weird it would be to hear these works in an actual museum. It would be fascinating to say the least and one can't help but to try and imagine the context in which these pieces were played and/or used.

In anycase, as an album of found sound and sound manipulation Recordings Made In Public Spaces volume oneis a journey into another world where disembodied voices and environments sit next to odd instrumentation and sheets of noise somewhere near the outer reaches of our galaxy. Wrekmeister Harmonies have created a strange world where your imagination can run free around the confines of this intriguing work of sonic art. In other words, it's entertaining stuff.