Composed of field recordings and a small amount of instruments, Windows/Walks is an extremely slow and quiet album. Sounds include ice hitting a window, a stream that flutters through a children’s park, and a humid night with very little going on. The album is best experienced through headphones, or far in the background of a dark room.
Reviews:
Tokafi (via Twitter)
“Extremely slow, extremely quiet, extremely wonderful: Free EP by Collin Thomas reveals the delicate magic of quietude.”
Vital Weekly 681
COLLIN THOMAS - WINDOWS/WALKS (MP3, private)
Back in Vital Weekly 655 I reviewed 'For The Painters' by Collin Thomas, which was inspired by various painters and Thomas used percussion and processing thereof as his tools of trade. This new album is however something else. No percussion as far as I can tell, but as extensive use of field recordings and 'a small amount of instruments', as Thomas writes. That may include a piano, I think. A few nights ago I woke of heavy thunder. As it was six in the morning, the birds were already up. After a giant thunder, one could hear just the birds and then slowly heavy rain came, which died out rather quickly, and the birds and occasional thunder remained. As a musical event I thought that was beautiful. But it wasn't captured on tape, so was it music? I wish I did a recording and maybe added some piano, but it seems not necessary. The field recordings made by Thomas seem to me sound events that happen too, like rain at night, ice hitting the window and other watery events. Collins sits back and watches things happening, sometimes tinkling the piano. He may have added a bit of processing afterwards, but if so, he kept that to a strict minimum. This music is what Brian Eno intended when he thought of Ambient music. Music that surrounds you. Best played at a low volume, doors and windows open, and let whatever is happening on this disc tickle through with what whatever is happening around you. Nice one. Should have been a CDR release! (FdW)
Thierry Massard, noCo...mment
it was probably, but i'm not that sure, don't remember yet, there was that flux of distant vehicles brewing an air saturated with harmonic particles, maintaining our attention active and this suspended echo on things and walls - Time may have stopped, how important ? a parenthesis - a time out dressed of stretching and languid atmospheres - oh and ... also the remain of a postcard or was it a photo, yes a nice piano photo, but now i have to go back, just in case
Textura
Kansas City-based experimental musician Collin Thomas assembled the four settings on his Windows/Walks using natural outdoor sounds and a modest number of instruments (piano the most prominent). However, the fifty-five minute release isn't a “pure” field recordings collection, even though such sounds dominate. Windows/Walks is as much a sound art as an ambient recording, the kind of project that veritably demands that it be experienced through headphones or at loud volume in an otherwise quiet setting. Thomas has composed works for percussion, winds, and chamber ensembles, and released more than ten albums, many of which can be downloaded for free from his web site (including Windows/Walks).
In “A Deceptively Empty Night,” Thomas subtly augments sounds of traffic flow and unidentifiable creaks with echoing electric piano accents that assert themselves almost subliminally alongside the flow. Musically, he functions like an improvising pianist accompanying a silent film by commenting on the filmic content as it unfolds. Sometimes the musical elements drop out for stretches at a time, a move that in turn brings the environmental sounds into sharper relief. That occurs during “Almost Alone” when piano meander surfaces intermittently within a fourteen-minute soundtrack of rain drizzle and traffic noise; in this case, the prickly static-like character of the rain comes forth most vividly when the musical elements recede. The musical dimension assumes a stronger role in “Icicles” when piano playing shares the spotlight with clattering percussive noises (presumably derived from ice striking a window). Of the album's four pieces, “Icicles” is the one that comes closest to a micro-sound classification, with Thomas leaving ample space around the soft clattering noises and piano ruminations. Like a painter, Thomas dabs at the sound mass with a piano note here and another there, while a blanket of hiss ebbs and flows alongside the percussive accents. Though brooding tones occasionally appear, musical elements largely take a back seat to the agitated dribble and echo of a park stream in “Stone to Stone.”
In addition to his composing ventures, Thomas is also an amateur photographer who has produced books, videos, and photographic series; apparently many of the latter reflect an appreciation for deterioration and rust, and a similar dedication to micro-detail is evident in Windows/Walks too.
