The first two songs by themselves are already interesting ambient compositions, interwoven with calm plucking and hammering on piano strings. Then follows the brilliant "Exit", a 30-minute soundscape that hypnotises through the use of a repetitive loop and lingers in your mind, long after it has finished. I recommend you listen to this song on a pair of headphones with the volume turned up. What a fantastic record!


Don Rosco (c) 2006
(This is) some ambient. It’s important to remember, I think, that ambient shouldn’t just be music without beats. Brian Eno sez: ”Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.”

Of course, it’s easy to do the ignorable part, but a good bit harder to do the interesting bit.

This track (Exit) really nails it. The first time I heard this track it was background music; the second time my ears pricked up every now and then; the third time, my eyes were closed, I stopped what I was doing and I went for the ride. It’s a long track, and is a bit reminiscent of Basinski’s ‘Disintegration Loops’ - a ‘riff’ which ever so gradually morphs through time. I love that unchanging / changing thing.

It’s also licensed under Creative Commons, so share away. Thanks to Statto from Subvert Central for the tip."


Wire Magazine (c) 2006
These are pieces not just for, but formed from, a condemned piano. The members of Formication chanced one night upon a piano, left for dead in a pub car park. The instrument had already been ‘prepared’ by the effects of wind and rain, so that it’s swollen keys couldn’t be played in any standard way. As such, the sounds here are already those of an instrument being played against the grain of convention. Formication later worked and re-worked the recordings into ‘Pieces For A Condemned Piano’, processing the material so that at times it’s source is unrecognizable. The attack of strings being struck disappears into slow waves of pure reverberant texture.’


Landschaft (c) 2006
Formication with whom I have been exchanging emails (see 20 January 2006 blog), kindly sent me a review copy of their "Pieces for a Condemned Piano". Packaged in a sumptuous round edged jewel case. The parcel came in a wonderful cardboard envelope thingy, the address label incorporating the formication insectomorph logo and addressing details in a clean grey sans-serif font. I had to tear the box to get it open, and for this chap who keeps his Peter Saville sleeved Factory Records immaculate 20 something years on this was somewhat of a trauma. However, ripped, the box will be retained as a record of the moment that is Pieces for a Condemned Piano and makes my copy of the "product" unique. The CD insert comprises a photo of the frame of a piano against a black/near black background. Black and Gold. I've always marvelled at the innards of a piano, and recall early sonic experiments, age 5, strumming and xylophoning the stings of my grandparents' upright Grand. Lettering is in a classical serif font. A good start. Landschaft approves of the serif. Pieces for a Condemned Piano is an exploration in 3 movements of the sonic possibilities of the carcase of an abandoned piano, left open to the elements. The first two movenents "On the Dying Pathway" and "The Final Stage of Trauma" derive more overtly from accoustic field recordings of the piano; captured in situ then processed, cycled and interwoven with wholly electronic sounds. Exit, longer and leaning more towards dronology, is 28 minutes of unfolding transitions of dense murky darkness, the piano samples less overt and the piece that I prefer. I will send Formication a copy of Karelia that aims to capture a similar mood.


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Dark Winter releases are free to download under a Creative Commons License.

Related Links:

• Audio
• Full Cold Moon - A tribute to Jhonn Balance and the Musick of COIL
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