Forlorn

forlorn with someone, going nowhere then, nothing happens Fabio/Fabio Auto-Lust Ben Street loves drinking Yellowtail tranny surprise forever winter one third heartbroken sell already

"forlorn" is the latest release by NYC -based jazz drummer Jochen Rueckert's electronic project "Wolff Parkinson White", an extremely rewarding album, if you make it past the first two minutes.

Picking up where 2010's release "rest from what" left off, the album draws heavily from rapid-fire digitally generated or processed sound we are familiar with from artists like Autechre and Aphex Twin, as well as highly complex rhythmic structures, as introduced to the genre by Venetian Snares, pushing the limit even further with ever-changing subdivisions, superimpositions and metric modulations. Limited to programming only on his cheap laptop, often during downtime while on tour- "forlorn" pushes the envelope by taking the possibilities of audio processing to the very extreme. The fact that the artist is actually a well trained musician rewards the listener with a multifaceted harmonic and melodic richness, an element sadly non-existent in contemporary electronic music.

Touched upon on its predecessor, the new album is set entirely in the quarter tone scale explored by various 20th century composers such as Charles Ives and Krzysztof Penderecki, without lacking a somewhat followable song structure.

The name "Wolff Parkinson White" is taken from a heart condition that the artist had the pleasure to be born with .

please visit wolffparkinsonwhite.bandcamp.com/album/forlorn for a preview

In great detail :

The album opens with the title track "forlorn", a relaxed song set in a moderate Allegro, going along with a relatively uncomplex 13/4 time signature, hinting at increased age, less desire to prove himself and reduced intake of amphetamines by the composer. After somebody sings about being a fool, a ritardando and metric modulation from quarter note triplets to quarter notes every 2 bars evokes an ever slowing downward spiral, though every cycle results in the original tempo, like a dog biting its own tail, moved along by a pleasant little keyboard line holding it all together.

"with someone, going nowhere" starts off seemingly out of time but soon a repeating quarter-tone arpeggio outlines a 15/8 form divided into 4,4,4 and 3 eight notes. Somewhat reminiscent of a popular i-VI-iv-V chord progression, the entering sequence lets the percussive element rest momentarily, its return cleverly masks the now well established time signature. A simplified chord sequence orchestrated in a warm factory preset sets the backdrop for some ambitious alternative rock singing which culminates in a disturbing ending set in an unapologetic 4/4.

"then, nothing happens" 's opening chord sequence soon is adorned by a cycle of 6/4, 5/4, 4/4 and 5/4, each stretched onto each chord of equal length. Reminiscent of the opening song of "rest from what" - the underlying mathematical principle extends itself later to 6-7-6-5 and even 6-7-8-7, all accompanied by lush arpeggi running in major, minor and in between thirds and sixths evoking a circus-music-like feeling that is sorely missing in contemporary electronic music these days.

"Fabio/Fabio" evolves from a bass ostinato outlining a 7/8, 7/8, 9/8 cycle, playfully sidestepping the major or minor third in quarter tones, hence obscuring the gender of the underlying key signature. Reminiscent of early 2000's Venetian Snares' programming, the more drum-and-bass type sections of the song suggest a nostalgic yearning for simpler times. A sample of a song from 1903 at the end is cut off at its saddest part, "Nacht und Schatten um uns beide".

"Auto-Lust", a title best understood with basic knowledge of German, is a tour de force of micro-looping sound with or without unchaining the pitch of repeated sound from the modification of speed of repetition. Set in electronic music's second favourite meter, 7/4, the song's middle section resembles a garbage disposal of modern dance music's clichés and the the melody in the obligatory melodic section sounds just a little bit too much like the theme song to "trailer park boys".

"Ben Street loves drinking Yellowtail", starting off as the mandatory "mellow" song of the album, navigates some interesting quarter tone harmony with several synths oscillating in intervals. Morphing into a more ambient situation, the rest of the song represents some of the more disturbing aspects of the album

"tranny surprise" 's title seems a poorly chosen way to siphon internet search hits and has somebody singing about a man at a bar, staring into space. The educated listener will not find himself confusing the alternating 11/4 and 23/8 time signatures for a wonky 7/4, though one could say that this song might be overdoing the passing of dotted eight notes as regular eight notes a little bit.

"forever winter" is based on a chord structure that transposes one quarter tone down every 8 bars of 5/4. Mangled drum sounds outline a similarly deflating effect, switching from straight eight note to triplet feel halfway through the cycle, the tempo slowing from 400 bpm to 266.66 bpm in the meantime, just to jump back to 400 bpm, seamlessly modulating the triplets back to eight notes, the composer obviously hellbent on having nobody know what's going on throughout the song rhythmically, as to not draw attention away from the feeling of eternal deceleration throughout the song.

"one third heartbroken" highlights the composer's ability to not only create a beautiful melody in quarter tones, but also to program himself into a corner. As his way out of the stagnant repetition he blatantly superimposes 7/4 and eventually 9/8 over the already unintelligible 17/16th meter the song is originally set in.

Using the dotted eight note as means of throwing off the listener, "sell already" is set in 23/8. After a mere 3 and a half minutes, a few consecutive quarter notes in the bass drum part reveal a 5/4 and 11/8 division.

Music critics are welcome to claim to have figured the time signatures out by themselves, though one should not expect any increased female (replace with "male" depending on critic's gender and sexual orientation) attention from doing so.

rest from what

sadness surrounds us a. Jesus rest from what day is long c. r. salad lonely out here Glasgow coma scale american bathroom Wanderpokal Ben Street plays strings made of i.l.r.s.w

Wolff Parkinson White's second album "rest from what" opens with a pretty synth line, which will be heard throughout the song in different permutations, it's grace soon destroyed by the entrance of the "drums" after two mere cycles of 5/8,4/8,3/8,2/8,3/8,4/8 which will remain the form of the song.

The second track introduces us to a quartertonal riff in 9/8 with the inevitable back-to-his-teutonic-roots breakcore freakout ensuing . The title track takes us back to tempered tuning in 13/8, the middle section showing off complete control over a simple delay and white noise snare drums, the frazzled ending seemlessly seguing into "day is long"- arguably the album's "ballad". Only on close listen we realise we're back to the 24 tone scale with an unsuspected 11/4 throughout. "C.R. salad" is the oldest track on the record, the main line switching from middle to left, back to middle and right channel first once then twice, thrice and eventually five times each 13/8 bar.

"lonely out here" was written shortly after being introduced to Morton Subotnick's "silver apples on the moon" by Ben Monder, coincidentally, certain similarities of this track and Venetian Snares' "Huge Chrome Peach" can not be denied. The voice track is from an impromtu poem by overall social genius and trumpet player John McNeil unknowingly caught on tape. The next track calms things down a bit, but only until we get slipped 7/8 bars superimposed over the 11/8 we just got used to. A calming acoustic Piano rendition at the end makes up for it though, eventually

Next up is the runner up for album title, "american bathroom"- an exercise with the single rule of every sound having to immediately be repeated backwards ,culminating in a sort of a 3 part canon. Wanderpokal apparently uses an underlying bass figure that works in 5/4 and 7/4, as popularised by jazz drummer Ari Hoenig. Finishing up the album, the last tune is obviously a cheap attempt at syphoning itunes search hits and is set in an adequate 11/8 , with the only 9 bars of 4/4 ever in Wolff Parkinson White history, superimposed.