When most artists think of “damaged, demagnetized, decayed or scratched” tapes, they think of a cassette consigned to the garbage heap. When Uruguay’s Richard Garet encounters the same product, he thinks of art, and if the tape seems too intact, he’s just as likely to bake or wash it as he is to play it. By digitizing the results, he’s produced the lovely long-form Decentering, a single piece that bleeps, hiccups, shuffles and slides its way to a satisfying conclusion. Rising frequencies and looped pops – the equivalent of locked grooves – create wind tunnels of sound, making the project seem at times like the oddest of field recordings: a computer abandoned in the woods as its power source drains down. Midway through the piece, we begin to hear orphaned notes and voices, removed from their original context. Thankfully, Garet loved them enough to adopt them. It would have been a shame to have tossed these sounds aside like so much cracked plastic and tangled tape. (Richard Allen)
