Dragon's Eye Recordings
26’40”
Cat.No. de6025
Digital, Unlimited Edition
Released 20th July 2018

Liner Notes

Credits

Reviews

Patience and limitation.
Discipline.
Restrictive, but not a claustrophobic gathering.
Music of restraint, but never choosing a straightjacket as its appropriate attire.

Sound artist Fabio Perletta scratches at weak, fleshy surfaces, drawing blood out from deeper meanings, venturing deeper into the psychological and sociological bloodstream.

Patience is a virtue, but we understand Western Culture to be impatient; it’s usually considered to be an annoyance, an unwanted process, a stumbling block. Patience is fading faster than a slim waistline in a world of instant gratification. McDonalds; the latest iPhone; downloadable apps; on-demand television. We think they help in making life as smooth as a milkshake, but instead of bringing all the boys to the yard, this unhealthy concoction make us lazier. As attention spans have declined, laziness and dependence on ease-of-access has increased.People need to step back and meditate on the effects that a fast-fast-faster, now-now-now culture has on health and wellbeing.

Diminishing returns.

Perletta challenges the status quo and this current imbalance, bringing equilibrium to the scales by imbuing his music with patience and self-control. The opening spell of tinnitus could just as easily reflect the shrill dissonance of the twenty-first century, even if it is but an infant. Zoomed in to an uncomfortable degree, this is all the listener can hear. That’s because 7456. Live at Human Resources, Los Angeles explores distance, proximity, and ‘the need to be emotionally detached to achieve balance’. Loneliness, isolation, and detachment are separate things; this recording, with its concentration on the inner world, comes close to all three territories, giving the music an ability to think freely and see clearly.

Looking through the lens of its auditory camera, the music retreats, backtracking in order to take in other sounds – low-flying drones, distant gongs, cavernous reverberations – and these sounds soon fill up the frame, expanding around the edges as Perletta pans left and right. Perception differs from person to person – that’s one of the great qualities of life, and of art – and like photographs and paintings the music can be interpreted and translated a thousand ways. Because experiences shape perceptions, thoughts, and, in turn, actions – for better or worse.

With a minimal approach, and an endless number of variations, the music becomes the eye, supplying just enough vision for the listener’s needs; seeing only what it wants the listener to see, but also lighting up the imagination with its canyons of silence and distant bells, which echo long into the night, delaying the inevitable silence.

A question is just as important as a potential answer.

Duality and paradox, inconsistency and impermanence – this is music’s way. If the listener comes to a conclusion, it will be guided by individual perception and what one considers truth. Perletta challenges the norms of everyday life, along with long-held, accepted special dimensions, and his music helps in broadening the sonic palette. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

“If everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other” – Groove Armada

James Catchpole, A Closer Listen

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This sparse, contemplative recording is described as a summary of two recent Fabio Perletta works: Genkai and Ichinen. It also marks the end of a series of pieces developed in collaboration with Haruo Okada focused, according to the album’s notes “on notions of presence, limitation, contemplation, patience and humility.”

You need not be familiar with any of these other efforts to appreciate this live recording. 7456unfolds slowly over its 26½ minutes. We get vignette after vignette of lovingly conceived, beautifully recorded sounds.

Pieces structured in this way sometimes feel like a walk in some imaginary forest. Their value is in the artist’s presentation of various sounds that together produce a kind of auditory tour.

What’s striking about this one – performed by Perletta on June 11, 2017 – is that it all hangs together so seamlessly. Despite the fact that it originates in two separate works, and that it incorporates stretches of low volume sound or outright silence, 7456 is a successful whole.

It’s also a gorgeous sounding album. Depending on the setting, you may find this requires a high-end set of headphones. Otherwise, you’re likely to miss its finer points.

Perletta’s hope is that the piece raises questions about perspective. More from the notes: “the music … exists in potentially infinite variations through its exposure to each listener’s unique memories, experiences, and perceptions. 7456. Live at Human Resources, Los Angeles thus asks the questions: is there and where is truth? Are artworks really finished? Do artworks which artists create belong to them?”

All big questions at a time when identity means so much, and absolute truth feels elusive. Perletta’s contribution to both conversations deserves a careful listen.

Kevin Press, Bad Press