Pedestrian Deposit – The Architector
8.12.15 by Ian Franklin
For the 15 years Monorail Trespassing has been in operation they’ve released a staggering amount of music. To celebrate their 100th release they’ve delivered the newest offering from Pedestrian Deposit, the duo of Jonathan Borges and Shannon A. Kennedy. “The Architector” (C40) is two side-long tracks built off of material dating from February 2010 through December 2014 “recorded at lungmotor c.n., goose nest, and in the field”. Pedestrian Deposit give a bit of detail on their Facebook about the release stating, “The culmination of five years of obsessive work — fits and starts of ongoing perfectionism that spawned two solo projects and two additional records. Beginning with crude and unfamiliar source materials, each sound is examined from every possible angle, then taken apart and reconstructed along with the compositional process. From 2010 forward, each phase is represented; the past three U.S. tours have given clues, and these recordings offer more of the puzzle, but you will never get everything at once. To be experienced as foreground with no distractions. This begins a practice of self-containment and preservation from outside elements.” For the people familiar with their work already, this presents some very compelling information; but for those who aren’t, it barely hints at the intensely visceral and powerful noise ahead.
Reducing Pedestrian Deposit’s sound to a strictly “noise” signifier, however, would be a terrible disservice to the duo. Their pieces are for the most part composed, with a strict adherence to form, spatiality, dynamics, and timbre. Live performances often include elaborate rigging structures, suspending Kennedy in an array of pulleys, chains, and other pieces wielding contact mics in a seemingly dangerous but composed dance of sonic annihilation. Borges, keenly aware of dynamic minutia, switches from stoically composed to all out furious, extracting devastating feedback from the ether.
Side A’s “A Cold Harvest”, begins with brief flashes of metallic dread on top of a steady and rippling undercurrent of low-end oscillation. The overwhelming feeling is that of dread. The sounds morph into labored groans of synth with triggered splashes of feedback that never seem to spiral out from their control. Sharp stabs of synth build over distant electronic wails. The tension is haunting. Dancing around the edges of complete breakdown the duo builds an already unnerving sound to near hysteria before completely falling off to slow paced crawl of clicking feedback and sublime bowed cello.
“Shifted Snake” kicks of the B side with dexterous punches of harsh noise, silhouetted by almost imperceptible bed of fuzz. Glistening bubbles of synth boil over, melting into the layers of looping textured noise. Soft resonant tones float in and out of the structure. The noise eventually fades leaving only the resonance behind; a glowing orb of distant light rotating around you just beyond your arms reach that swells with a slow and steady speed before ultimately consuming you.
This is an extraordinary release from a titan in experimental music. It makes you painfully aware of the intricacies of awareness, beckoning you to give everything you have to the energy of the performance. “The Architector” is released in an edition of 100 and is still available from the Monorail Trespassing which means you should go get it.