Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Jack Hertz — Starfish
(Bandcamp Aural Films AF0376 , 2023, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2023-09-09

Starfish Cover art

Jack Hertz is a California based composer and synthesist who is very prolific, releasing over 125 recordings between his 2010 debut, Streaming Landscape, and the current year of this review 2023, and as time goes forward the frequency of his releases is only increasing, to the point now where there is something new coming out every month, and that doesn’t even include the other groups he’s involved with (MHZ, Dead City Shaman, m00m, etc.). I don’t think any of those, least of not the more recent ones, have been released in any physical format, only as downloads. Starfish is a case in point — I’ve only been listening to and absorbing it for the last couple months, and there are already several newer releases that have come out since, so he’s a busy guy, creating new music 24/7. “Starfish” is a single 52-minute track, exploring the boundaries of ambient sound, with wide swaths of tonal color, swirling, breathing textures, sparkling scintillating soundfields, and waves of cold and warmth all moving and evolving at a glacial pace. The effect is powerful and certainly a massive spectre of shimmering beauty, something that a listener can become completely immersed in for purposes of meditation or slumber. The layers of sound obscure one another as they fold in space and switch back and turn themselves inside out, much like the soundtrack to a rich, floating dream; the cycles repeat and revolve, casting magical shadows on everything where its light can reach. After around the twenty minute mark it seems like everything has been explored, and there is nothing really new, just cyclical repeats of all that came before, and that’s okay, sometimes a listener needs that to reach the “zone.”  Fans of Steve Roach, Jarguna, Robert Rich, Lorenzo Montaná, and like minded travelers would do well to check out the work of Jack Hertz, and in particular, Starfish.

Filed under: New releases, 2023 releases

Related artist(s): Jack Hertz

More info
http://jackhertz.bandcamp.com/album/starfish

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.