Pushing percussive music to some kind of an edge, Timber (2011) by composer Michael Gordon (Bang on a Can) is built out of simple ingredients: written for an ensemble of six wooden 2x4s, the piece uses the concept of hitting wood and amplifying it to rich, deep effect, creating a musical world of rhythm and echo that, for how aggressive the music can sometimes seem, is also strangely calm and mind-clearing.
Brilliantly expanding the material, Mantra Percussion and Cantaloupe Music have now teamed up to give us Timber Remixed, an album-length exploration of the raw stuff of Timber by the likes of Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Oneohtrix Point Never, Ikue Mori, Mira Calix, and Jóhan Jóhannson, among others (truly some kind of all-stars/United Nations/Justice League of alt & composed music). Reinterpreting the root sample of Timber in a variety of exploratory ways, the artists here stay true to the piece’s original focus on the transformative power of purely rhythm-based music, not only commenting on Gordon’s work but also deepening it.
Tiny Mix Tapes is happy to be premiering one of the album’s stand-out remixes, courtesy of Greg Saunier (Deerhoof). Meditating on some of the work’s more frenetic passages, Saunier pleasantly mucks with it by not only making the piece’s natural minimalism more disjointed and jagged, but also saturating it in layers of overdrive that bring out some real roughness. Take it in via this spiritually compatible video by Michael Carter (probably don’t watch it if you have epilepsy).
Timber Remixed will be available October 28 from Cantaloupe Music.
More about: Bang On a Can, Deerhoof, Greg Saunier, Mantra Percussion, Michael Gordon
