Chris Cutler — Twice Around the Earth: An Experiment in Listening
(ReR Megacorp ReR CC2, 2004, CD)
by Peter Thelen,
Published 2006-05-01
![Twice Around the Earth: An Experiment in Listening Cover art Twice Around the Earth: An Experiment in Listening Cover art](http://expose.org/assets/img/releases/cutler-chris-twice-around-the-world-2004.jpg)
The subtitle “An experiment in listening” pretty much says it all. This is not so much a Chris Cutler solo
album per se, but instead two suites (for lack of a better term) each comprised of a montage of short
segments of field recordings all crossfaded together. Each of the short segments in turn were excerpted
from longer 30 minute segments submitted by ‘listeners’ from around the world that were originally used
as programming for Cutler’s nightly
Out of the Blue radio program that aired for one year beginning in July, 2002. A third piece, separating the two suites, is a single fourteen minute field recording from a cafeteria
table at Luxembourg airport – and predictably is not as interesting as the longer montages. The essence
of this is that one can put on their headphones and take two quick trips around the world, remotely
listening to various short random events through a microphone as they occurred. If nothing else, it will
make you a better listener and engender an awareness of all the sounds that go on around you in the
routine moments of everyday life. It’s a cool idea, and the net result is far more interesting than I would
have suspected from just reading about it.
Filed under: New releases, Issue 33, 2004 releases
Related artist(s): Chris Cutler