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Reviews

Bill Horist — Substratum
(Bandcamp Right Brain Records, 2024, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-02-10

Substratum Cover art

An album of prepared guitar improvisations might seem like a risky proposition — I’m sure many would be bracing themselves to hear walls of noise and all manner of harshness. But in the expert hands of Bill Horist, Substratum is a rather meditative affair, built of mostly sparse sounds allowed to ring out and decay as their tones subtly change. Some of the sounds are recognizably the product of a guitar, many are not. Having watched Horist perform this kind of music several times, I can say that while some effects devices are used, it’s not as many as you think — he’s devised ways to play that sound as if they’ve been processed but really aren’t. The music is atonal but not especially dissonant. If you’re looking for coherent melodies, you won’t find them, but neither will you find harsh clashes of notes. The density of sounds tends towards the minimalist, with more attention given to tone colors than to movement. My only disappointment with Substratum is that we’re missing the visual element of seeing him play, but even as an audio-only creation, it’s a wonderful, curious artifact.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Bill Horist

More info
http://billhoristguitar.bandcamp.com/album/substratum

 

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