Karl Fousek, “Chapter 4” (Second Editions)
Vancouver composer Karl Fousek’s In the Forest: Music for a Film by David Hartt is a study in extreme minimalism and exacting microsound design, where every pindrop tone, interstellar drone, and manipulated sonic evocation of nature/field recording carries maximal importance and weight. Hartt’s film focuses on the prefabricated modules of Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie’s unfinished 1968 project, Habitat Puerto Rico, which has now been overrun by nature. (Read more about Hartt here.)
Rather than arboreal environments, though, the supremely ominous “Chapter 4” makes me imagine a mushroom cloud billowing in slow-motion. This is a frigid, gaseous aural emission that whirs in splendid desolation. If some quixotic filmmaker were to remake Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, they would do well to lace their soundtrack with “Chapter 4,” which is like György Ligeti’s “Lux Aeterna” crossed with Gil Mellé’s The Andromeda Strain. If any music from 2019 gets deeper than this, please notify me. Check out the track after the jump.
Karl Fousek plays tonight at Chapel Performance Space with Norm Chambers and RM Francis.
