MUSIC FOR EARTHQUAKES

Hungary based project COMPUTERCHEMIST is the creative vehicle of UK composer and musician Dave Pearson, who have released seven full length production using this moniker since 2005. "Music for Earthquakes" from 2011 is the fifth of these.

I'd wager a guess in stating that this is a production featuring music of a kind few have ever encountered before. Or rather, the specifics of this creation are rather peculiar, even if the expression and style of music may not be that spectacular. In short, Pearson was inspired by a minor earthquake in Hungary, and managed to get the seismological data recorded at three different earthquake stations, ran them through something called a harmonic generator and at some point compressed the hour long data recording into pieces clocking in at about 30 minutes each. So while Pearson arranged this album and the compositions, the credits for instruments is in this case The Earth's Teutonic Plates, which at least for me is a new one.

The end result are two long creations of ambient noise. Rather one-dimensional in scope, and of a kind that will appeal to a select audience only I guess. The first part comes across as distant wailing, ghostly voices on top of a dark, dampened noisescape, interrupted by dark, booming noises for the more dramatic part of the earthquake and it's after shocks presumably.

The second soundscape is subtly different in scope. This one brings closer associations to the sounds one might imagine in deep space, although the ghostly presence is still in effect it's not quite as dominant here, and the more dramatic sounds of the earthquake itself now sounds closer to what I'd imagine would be the case when a spaceship passes by.

All in all an album that will have a very limited appeal I surmise, but if anyone is curious about how an earthquake sounds like when translated into musical forms or is just plan interested in ambient, musical noise of a minimalistic nature then this production should appeal.