The title “Tone Phase 1 for 2 Guitars & 4 Oscillators” is a giveaway, clearly indicating what’s going to be heard once the LP has landed on the record player. And, indeed, the first track on the second side of Eleh’s newly reissued Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis 1 seamlessly fuses single tones generated by electric guitars and analogue oscillators. However, what’s less apparent from taking in the title is the magnetic power exerted by the track during its translucent progress over ten minutes. Hypnotic.
The same applies to what follows: the also-ten-minute “Tone Phase 2 for Guitars & 4 Oscillators.” The drone is in a lower register this time, a little like the smoothed-out rumble of a distant lawnmower engine. When measured against the side’s first track, this downward tonal shift creates tension.
Side One of Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis 1 is occupied by “In The Ear of the Gods,” a 19-minute shifting pattern of sound which, though less cavernous, bears a familial relationship to the subterranean aural landscapes typifying the first two Kluster albums. Due to the inclusion of an oscillator configured to suggest water dripping there is, this time, a rhythmic element. At around the mid point, there is a subtle undulation in the sound bed. A ripple. A few snatches of a swooping sound materialise, presumably produced by the HP Tube Oscillators which were employed. But the focus is the gentle drone. On the original album’s front cover was the strapline “"Pure Sound. Pure Volume. Pure Analog. Dedicated To La Monte Young." (pictured below left)
Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis 1 was recorded in 2004 and 2005, and originally issued in March 2006. Now, in a sleeve with new art, it is once-again available. Twenty years ago, there were a few different editions of the album but, overall, 400 were pressed. Each copy was hand numbered. These quickly sold out, and a cassette version followed in 2019.
Including collaborations, there have been around 44 Eleh albums. It is not possible to light on an exact number, as odd albums include reworkings of previously issued material. The last album was 2021’s Snoweight, which came out on cassette and CD – the latter format was the prime vehicle for getting it out. Prolific then, and a very particular self-defined path. Over time, the music has evolved but it is always about minimalism and drone.
Eleh is recording guise of the Massachusetts-based John Brien. He runs Important Records, the label which has issued the bulk of the records credited to Eleh (this album was originally on, and is reissued by, Important). A look at the imprint’s discography gives Eleh some context. Releases by A Place To Bury Strangers, Acid Mothers Temple, Boris, The Dresden Dolls, Merzbow, John Oswald, Maja S. K. Ratkje and Josef van Wissem have been on Important. Closer to the Eleh mind-set, there have also been albums – of archive and new material – by the associated triptych of Cluster, Kluster and Conrad Schnitzler, as well as Pauline Oliveros, Éliane Radigue and Lee Ranaldo.
Amongst all this, the Eleh records stand apart. Not just because of the single-minded sonic vision at play – in that spirit, on Minneapolis' Taiga label, there is a series of Eleh “homage” albums: Homage To The Square Wave, Homage To The Sine Wave, Homage To The Pointed Waveforms. But also due the acute graphic sensibility, where the artwork of one album is always in sympathy with the others. Care is taken with the nature of the sleeves, how they are printed and with the pressing. It is as if Brien began working as Eleh while knowing he was already in the process of creating a unified body of work.
Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis 1 is where this was inaugurated. A foundational album, and a singularly beguiling one, it has clear roots in and a deep knowledge of a minimalist tradition. It still casts its spell. A very welcome reissue.
- Next week: I Individual, the July 1978 first album by London art-punk oddities Gloria Mundi
- More reissue reviews on theartsdesk
- Kieron Tyler’s website
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