Daniel Crokaert’s Unfathomless label, an offshoot of Mystery Sea, has gone from strength to strength since making its debut in 2009. Joda Clément‘s The Narrows has taken twice that long to record. During that time, Clément traveled around Canada and Austria, carrying on in the tradition of his father, who led him on field recording expeditions when he was a child. It’s a wonderful thing to think of a father’s love for his art being passed on like this. The result is less a sound map than a sound mulch: reality, memory, and distorted remembrance all pressed into one 35-minute track. The piece is toned down, almost dronelike yet still above the frequency levels of a “pure” field recording. While listening, one struggles to make identifications, but Clément does as well, admitting that he can no longer identify all of his sources. Electronic fields vibrate, distant voices echo, objects are dragged. For those who regard memory as a mystery, The Narrows will be a source of intrigue; for those who view the onset of confusion as an intruding cloud, the piece will serve as a dark disturbance. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 