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Reviews

Martin Archer / Jan Todd — Private View
(Discus Music 185CD, 2024, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-10-28

Private View Cover art

Right up front, I have to say Private View is one of the most interesting releases of recent vintage on Discus Music, combining many different musical elements into something entirely new and unpredictable, and it’s thoroughly satisfying. Archer is, of course the father of Discus Music and has appeared on so many of their releases over the years that it’s almost impossible to enumerate. Todd, on the other hand is perhaps lesser known, being the force behind Frostlake, and having appeared on several (but not all) of the releases by Orchestra of the Upper Atmosphere, as well as a couple of releases by Juxtavoices, and Fjall’s From the Rough Hill, which we reviewed in Exposé last year. With the exception of an appearance on twelve string guitar by Terry Todd (“Suns and Stars”) every note throughout this album was composed, played and arranged by Archer and Jan Todd, the latter handling all the lyrics and vocals (many of the vocals are wordless), the voices often being multitracked. Both play a vast array of instrumentation, Archer handling most of the keyboards, electronics, woodwinds, synth bass, drum programs, glockenspiel, harmonica (yes, that’s a woodwind too), percussion, and a lot more, depending on the track; likewise Jan Todd handles various harps, midi keys, electronics, drums, cello, idiopan dominus (a large steel tongue drum), waterphone, EWI and more, again all track depending. Since there are only two composers and players in most cases, the pieces seem more composed than improvised, and when there is improvisation, it’s more planned as opposed to free, with plenty of structure to build on. There are some powerful pieces here like “Ophelia’s Lament,” “Matamua,” “La Jatte,” and “Le Soleil Levant” to offer just four examples out of the twelve tracks on hand, each offering a unique view into some beautiful, magical electro-acoustic soundworld that exists only in this place, in this brief moment. Todd certainly has a lovely voice, and when overlaid with the acoustic and electronic instrumentation, I am sometimes reminded of Dead Can Dance — remember them? But Private View is far less dark and infinitely more interesting.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Martin Archer

More info
http://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/private-view-185cd-2024

 

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