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Period
Jonathan Coleclough

A beautiful piece based entirely on sounds from a Bluthner grand piano, looped and extended into long, drifting, calm drones with occasional punctuation of recognizable notes slowly resonating. The piece becomes "Periodic" at the hands of Colin Potter, whose remix of the piece turns it into a more dark and haunting experience which reveals even less of the characteristics of a piano than the original. Two complimenting, yet also contrasting, views of the same material which both show a great deal of depth and cohesion. All wrapped in a full color cover designed by Jonathan and featuring his photographs.

"Like many of my pieces of music, the finished version of 'Period' is very different from the idea in my mind which I started out with. The idea acts as a seed and the piece grows, often in unexpected ways, from that seed. So I was extremely pleased when I heard Colin's remix of the piece, because he had transformed the piece into something much more like my initial idea. He had returned the piece full circle."

reviews of the original LP release:

from The Wire:

"Jonathan Coleclough is a relatively new Deep Listening composer, but one who deserves a place with the experimental Ambient pantheon that glorifies the work of Pauline Oliveros, Brian Eno, and :zoviet*france:. 'Period,' a vinyl only release and his third solo album, draws all its sounds from a Bluthner grand piano. With each key that Coleclough strikes, he has rigged up an undefined set-up (perhaps a series of interlocking delay pedals creating a delicate feedback loop or an acoustic device of various strings and springs which act as a modified Aeolian harp) to generate beautifully resonating tones, which appear at first to sustain indefinitely yet almost imperceptibly begin to show signs of decay. When a spartan cluster of impressionistic notes trickles from the piano's soundboard, Coleclough has an amazingly rich drone to work into gradual shifts and modulations until another series of gentle piano notes is required. The flip side of the record is an exceptional piece on which Nurse With Wound and Ora collaborator Colin Potter reworked the original source material. Potter's contribution entitled 'Periodic,' effectively erases the obvious references to the piano, leaving befind a densely tangled web of calm reverberations." - Jim Haynes

from the 9th issue of The Sound Projector:

"Two long beautiful pieces from this talented English musician / composer. He released Windlass in 1999, an epic voyage into the heart of a siren-like drone. The piano side 'Period' is much calmer than that tempestuous release, comprising a repeat-structure of a few simple acoustic piano notes against a soothing organ backdrop. The flip side 'Periodic' is a much more complex and extremely slow-moving drone, something which would not have felt out of place on the Isolationism compilation.
Coleclough often works with a very simple and small sound source (something as basic as a metal scrape), but through intensive reworkings inside his computer these sounds build up into something gigantic, as wide as the horizons in Montana and as deep as the Grand Canyon. The computer is used merely as a processing tool; there's nothing in the end product that resembles the usual harsh digital effects we sometimes associate with that area of working. Rather, Coleclough's sounds are 100% human, deeply moving, and apt to mesmerise you in such wise that, like the couple photographed on the cover dwarfed by a magnificent landscape, you will want to pause to take stock of the vastness of the world and everything in it. Humbling." - ED PINSENT

from Aquarius Records:

"Quite happy in releasing sporadic productions in painfully small pressings, Jonathan Coleclough has been one of Aquarius' favorite dronologist / deep listening composers and one who deserves a place in the experimental ambient pantheon that glorifies the work of Pauline Oliveros, Brian Eno, and Zoviet France. 'Period', a vinyl only release, draws all its sounds from a Bluthner grand piano. With each key that Coleclough strikes, he has rigged up an unknown set up (a series of interlocking delay pedals creating a delicate feedback loop? an acoustic device of various strings and springs which act as modified aeolian harp? it probably doesn't matter) to generate beautifully resonating tones, which appear at first to sustain indefinitely yet almost imperceptibly begin to show signs of decay. When a spartanly placed cluster of impressionistic notes trickles from the piano's sound board, Coleclough has an amazingly rich drone to gradually shift and modulate until another series of gentle piano notes is required. While this piece would be enough to warrant high praise from all at AQ, the flip side of the record is an exceptional piece on which Nurse With Wound and Ora collaborator Colin Potter reworked the original source material. Potter's contribution entitled 'Periodic' effectively erases the obvious references to the piano, leaving behind a densely tangled web of calm reverberations. Totally amazing!!!"

from Massimo Ricci:

"In the growing (and not always interesting) field of droning, Coleclough is really good as we all know, and this vinyl LP is no exception. This record consists of two long tracks: "Period" is made of piano chords treated with long, long reverbs and "Periodic" is an additional reworking of those frequencies, with the help of Colin Potter. The result is, in some instance, just astonishing. You get static soundscapes, low drones, barely audible harmonics and so on. I had wondered why putting this out on vinyl, since I believe this kind of listening is made for CD...but it really doesn't matter, this is a great record anyway and - furthermore - the vinyl quality of my copy is excellent indeed - no noises at all."

reviews of the CD reissue:
from Aquarius Records:

"One of Aquarius's favorite drone compositions, Jonathan Coleclough's 'Period' was originally released early in 2001 as a limited edition piece of vinyl on Anomalous Records and has now been reissued with an extended mix of the title track that is better suited to the CD format. Coleclough began collecting field recordings and transforming them into emphathic dronescapes back in 1989, around the same time he began corresponding with Colin Potter about his ICR cassette projects. Since then, Potter and Coleclough have worked closely on a number of projects starting with Andrew Chalk and Darren Tate in Ora, and culminating more recently with their well-received 'Low Ground' collaboration. 'Period' again finds Coleclough employing the production / engineering talents of Potter (who has also been working quite intently with Steven Stapleton in Nurse With Wound). Throughout his career, Coleclough has defined himself as a sound organizer, modifying acoustic events and field recordings to enhance the emotional resonance that he finds in those sounds. Here on 'Period,' Coleclough draws all of his sounds from a Bluthner grand piano, surrounding the spartanly placed clusters of impressionistic notes with a complementary set of delicately fluctuating drones. Coleclough does well to accentuate the sublime reverberant decay that follows the piano's sustained tones. Furthermore, Potter offered his interpretation of the source material entitled 'Periodic' which effectively erases the obvious references to the piano and leaves behind a densely tangled web of calm reverberations. As a whole 'Period' stands as an amazingly rich and balanced piece of work on par with Brian Eno's 'Thursday Afternoon' and the Cindytalk piano improvisations. Aquarius has also gotten in a limited number of the double CD sets of 'Period' which features a third mix of 'Period' by both Coleclough and Potter, and a gorgeous track called 'Summand,' which is a re-working of some of the source material that Coleclough brought to the 'Sumac' sessions with Andrew Chalk. There's only 300 of those double CDs in print. Don't blame us when they sell out!"

from issue 223 of The Wire:

"The motion of light on water" is how Jonathan Coleclough prefers to explain his music, acquiring the poetic whisper of careful deliberation that is characteristic of Bernhard Gunter's written words. The British drone explorer seeks out the tiny imperfections and unique variations within a long continuous sound which enable his compositions to capture the interest of an audience throughout an extended duration. Few artists have had the ability to pull off such an unassumingly difficult task, but Coleclough has had the good fortune to work with several of them, notably the hermetic Andrew Chalk (who has turned his talents to the Mirror productions with Christoph Heemann) and the versatile Colin Potter (who has often leant his sympathetic engineering ear to Nurse With Wound). Within Coleclough's most recent set of recordings Period / Periodicity and Low Ground, both Chalk and Potter do haunt these beautiful recordings, though Chalk's presence is far more ephemeral than Potter's hands-on collaborative and engineering work.

Period / Periodicity is the extended CD version of Coleclough's Period LP, also published by Anomalous. For the Period / Periodicity recordings, Coleclough's source material is entirely the piano, whose clustered notes he massages into variable, evanescent washes of sound. These pointillist marks smeared through digital effects do recall previous successes at piano driven ambient music -- in particular Eno's Thursday Afternoon and even some of the piano impressionism sprinkled throughout the Cindytalk albums -- but Coleclough's sensibility and pacing is even slower and more sparse. His use of the piano in conjunction with his assortment of blurring techniques activates a subtle, but distinctly present tension between harmonious purity and unnerving dissonance. Throughout this sprawling double-disc album, the most obvious references to the piano are gradually done away with, as Potter contributes a reworking of Coleclough's original piece by entangling all of the piano reverberations to such an extent as to effectively erase the original notes. Coleclough completes the album with an extended buzzing drone, constructed from some of the source material for the epic Chalk / Coleclough Sumac sessions. - Jim Haynes

Cat.# :: Composer(s)
21090
:: Enzo Minarelli
21089
:: Aliona Yurtsevich
21088
:: Yiorgis Sakellariou
21087
:: id m theft able
21086
:: Kasper T. Toeplitz
21085
:: Tom Hamilton
21084
:: David First
21083
:: Tomomi Adachi / Jaap Blonk / Owen F. Smith / Duane Ingalls
21082
:: Marta Sainz &
If, Bwana
21081 :: Aliona Yurtsevich
21080
:: If, Bwana
21079
:: Ulrich Krieger
21078
:: Triple Point
21077
:: Robin Hayward
21076
:: Ron Nagorcka
21075
:: Secluded Bronte
21074
:: David Rosenboom
21073
:: Peter Batchelor
21072 :: Alvin Lucier
21071 :: Lou Cohen
21070 :: Brian Chase
21069 :: Jerry Hunt
21068 :: If, Bwana
21067 :: Jorge Antunes
21066 :: Enzo Minarelli
21065 :: Tensions At The Vanguard
21064 :: Frances White
21063 :: Noah Creshevsky
21062 :: If,Bwana/Trio Scordatura
21061 :: Nate Wooley
21060 :: Leo Kupper
21059 :: Pauline Oliveros/ Francisco López/Doug Van Nort/Jonas Braasch
21058 :: Philip Corner
21057 :: Alvin Lucier
21056 :: Dimitri Voudouris
21055 :: Birds + Machines
21054 :: Kiva
21053 :: César Bolaños
21052 :: Lionel Marchetti & Olivier Capparos
21051 :: Tom Hamilton/
Bruce Eisenbeil
21050 :: Source Records 1-6
21049 :: Noah Creshevsky/ If,Bwana
21048 :: Simon Wickham-Smith
21047 :: Kenneth Gaburo
21046 :: If, Bwana (Al Margolis)
21045 :: Annea Lockwood
21044 :: Felix Werder
21043 :: Dimitri Voudouris
21042 :: Nick Didkovsky
21041 :: Montreal Sound Matter
21040 :: Anla Courtis
21039 :: Crawling with Tarts
21038 :: If, Bwana (Al Margolis)
21037 :: Hans Otte
21036 :: DIY Canons
21035 :: Band/Myers
21034 :: Chris Brown
21033 :: Tom Johnson
21032 :: Roger Reynolds
21031 :: Trios - Collaboration
21030 :: Beth Anderson
21029 :: Hamilton, Silverton, Margolis
21028 :: Warren Burt
21027 :: Jorge Antunes
21026 :: David Dunn
21025 :: Roger Reynolds
21024 :: If, Bwana (Al Margolis)
21023 :: Pauline Oliveros
21022 :: David Rosenboom
21021 :: Ross Bolleter
21020 :: Kenneth Gaburo
21019 :: If, Bwana (Al Margolis)
21018 :: Leo Kupper
21017 :: Robert Rutman
21016 :: Matthew Ostrowski
21015 :: various
21014 :: Rune Linblad
21013 :: If, Bwana (Al Margolis)
21012 :: Pauline Oliveros
21011 :: Rune Linblad
21010 :: If, Bwana (Al Margolis)
21009 :: Leo Kupper
21008 :: various
21007 :: If, Bwana (Al Margolis)
21006 :: Trigger
21005 :: Big City Orchestra
IB :: If,Bwana
FPM :: Frog Peak Music
CUE :: C.U.E. Records
SOP :: Sound of Pig Cassettes
ANTS :: Ants (Italian Label)
ANIMUL :: Ned Rothenberg
HOMLER :: Anna Homler
OAKSMUS :: oaksmus (German Label)
GD STEREO :: Geoff Dugan
ANOMALOUS :: Anomalous Records
NONSEQUITUR :: Nonsequitur
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