Andrew PeklerStrings + FeedbackReview

Andrew Pekler's previous releases (either under his own name or his Sad Rockets alter ego) have been eclectic,warm, fuzzy affairs, stuffed with subtle sonic pleasures. Nocturnes, False Dawns & Breakdowns, his last record for the estimable ~scape label, flirted with the vocabulary of early electric jazz and became a favourite late night listen for many (including me). But this one is a different kettle of fish...

Strings + Feedback is constructed entirely from samples, taken mainly from the work of composer Morton Feldman. It says a lot for either the strength of Feldman's music or the integrity of Pekler's approach that somehow the results are still Feldman-esque enough to be recognised as such.

Having said that, there's more incident in three minutes of Pekler's reworkings than there probably are in three hours of Feldman's originals.Harps, strings and the occasional piano are digitally whisked together into a simmering, sweetly dissonant brew.The opening "Plucko" dubs Feldman's ghostly tone clusters into deep space; "Pale Fyr" loops tiny fragments ofharpsand strings into a sumptuous but edgy soundscape, something like Daniel Figgis remixed by Oval.

Pekler is fairly consistent in his treatment of the material; loops of different lengths are laid on top of each other, often finished off with curls of distorted melody (from what might have once been a violin). Short, mournful melodies emerge, like foghorns singing to themselves absent mindedly.The results are rich, strange and occasionallyopressive;chamber music from a chamber that couldn't exist. Lovely.