Edward Ruchalski - Having It Out

Label: Humbug
Format: LP (ltd. 50)
Released: 2002

First post for me, but I'll keep it short. Although this release doesn't out-do the fantastic Dark Night, it comes startlingly close. I'll let someone else do the talking...

'Maybe Ruchalski's most beautiful work yet, and another example of his densely layered, swirling sound constructions. Working from basic materials such as nondescript scrapes & buzzes, feedback, self-made motor mallet instruments, metal sheets, field recordings, vinyl loops from old 78's, one could easily imagine a bleak and/or very "difficult" music but neither is really the case as Ruchalski has a way of bringing real life to these inanimate objects, letting them breathe, sigh or sing in their own peculiar, rustic way. Sometimes even a narrative element is felt as if a story were being told (most likely a sad one - perhaps of the destiny of the WW1 soldier staring blankly at us from the collage on the cover?). Who knows? The music of Ruchalski remains shrouded with a sense of mystery to me. The underlying ideas are often familiar, like the almost obsessive study of the minutiae of sustained vibration.....(maybe it's "minimalism" to some extent?), or the environmental/field recordings thing .....but there's always something else in there, too. This LP contains mostly unreleased material (the side-long "Having It Out" and a shorter piece on the B-side), as well as some choice cuts from previosuly released CD-Rs "Moveable Sites" (Humbug011) and "Radio Journal" (Homemade Records). Edition of 50.'

Tracklisting:

A1. Part 1
A2. Part 2
A3. Part 3
B1. Moss Lake
B2. Highway 6A
B3. Refined Localities
B4. Elegy for V

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