C.R. Gillespie - Concentration Patterns
"2x12" 140 gram vinyl records, 33RPM, black vinyl. Edition 300 copies. Die-cut outer sleeve, color print inner sleeves + poly-liner sleeves.
C.R. Gillespie is a Canadian musician and sound artist. Born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, coastal living on Vancouver Island influenced his textural overlapping of “waves”; focused layering of soothing tones that tremulate and merge in a vast and expansive synthetic ocean.
This aesthetic is at the forefront of his new release, Concentration Patterns , a sprawling 75-minute ambient suite which envelops the listener in a vibrating collage of drifting texture and glacial subtlety.
Generated using analog equipment in a home studio overlooking Toronto’s rail line, the piece began as a private meditative therapy-aid on synthesizer, sampler, prepared-guitar and spatial effects. In the process of anxiety alleviation, however, he began to associate the surrounding traffic and city noise as part of the fuller piece. A glowing palette of synthesizer tones coalesce with sundry field-recordings to form a more complete and organic whole, propelled by a barely discernible accumulation of melodic information. In this way, Concentration Patterns seeks not to obscure one’s surroundings, but to assist in the unconscious creativity of the senses and to apply that synaesthesia to their current environment.
Due to the necessary breakup of the whole piece in the vinyl format, a unique opportunity to accentuate the listening experience arose in suggesting the pairing of pure sine tones (indicated in specific Hz frequencies), which allow the listener to root each side to a low-register key centre, in which the tonal information of the piece may freely float above a constant foundation.
Combining elements of binaural beats and vibroacoustic therapy, Concentration Patterns is a modern embrace of “new age” pseudo-theory in an effort to temper incessant daily fatigue.Inspired by the technological deep-listening pioneered by artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel and Steve Roach, Concentration Patterns debuted in January 2020 as a sound installation as part of the Calgary Arts Common’s +15 Soundscape project. Situated in the city’s +15 walkway system, it’s locality as part of a metropolitan commute further illustrates its purpose as an accompaniment to both the mundane and surreal. Now, released in the hopes of assuaging similarly felt anxieties in its listeners, C.R. Gillespie invites you to submerge in the ambient pathways of unconscious reflection." - Hidden Harmony Recordings