‘Sea Change’ is the latest release on the Japanese imprint Slow Fow Records curated by Ryo Nakata (who is also releasing music himself as ryonkt). The album is the latest work of sound artist and photography enthusiast Richard Ginns who recorded ‘Sea Change’ during winter 2010 and spring 2011 in Manchester, England. Inspired by Taylor Deupree, Marcus Fischer and Monty Adkins the album comes with a really 12k-esque sound with a mixture of droning guitar sounds and textures that have been created with field recordings.
Maybe it’s just coincidence, maybe a consequence of the fact that Ginns names Marcus Fischer as one of his main inspiration sources but the track titles and the arrangements on ‘Sea Change’ and with it the central theme of the album immediately remind me of Fischer’s latest release on 12k called Monocoastal. Just to make sure that this simply is used to be a conclusion and not a criticism I also want to remind you of the fact that ‘Monocoastal’ received a Top 10 album of the year entry on this blog so that the analogy of ‘Sea Change’ with this album can’t be wrong at all! However, we would understate Ginns’ work if we just asserted that he has been inspired by a certain sound that is often related with the 12k imprint curated by Taylor Deupree. Especially regarding the eponymous track ‘Sea Change’ – which is the final track of the album actually – we see a wonderful improvisation that truly stands out and completes the album being positioned directly behind the central piece of the release (that’s what I would say from my point of view after listening through the album several times) called ‘Looking North’. Spanning over more than 15 minutes this piece has a wonderful dramaturgy and sound development that is mainly created with textures and sparse harmonic changes.
Regarding the Slow Fow Records catalogue so far including Celer, Fabio Orsi, Tanner Menard, Ian Hawgood, Concern and more wonderful artists, Richard Ginns is another wonderful addition that fits perfectly to the label roster. We are looking forward to hearing more from Slow Fow Records and Richard Ginns…
[ 4,6 / 5 ]
nice textures
Thanking Christoph for this review, and thank you K-Shan for your comment :)
I feel like you were way too kind in giving this album a pass. Having listened to the samples of it on soundcloud I have to say that in the case of “Sea Change”, claiming that you were inspired by Fisher or Deupree does not get you off the hook for what amounts to a knock off of recent 12k releases. It is so blatant. so sad.