MYSTERY SEA 48 | Christopher McFall | [This Heat Holds Snow]

ARTWORK

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INTRODUCTORY WORDS

-"I had placed myself in a rather not so unique position during the time in which I was composing these works. I'd been in similar circumstances before, however, I'd long forgotten what it had felt like to be there...to have established yet an another alignment; a unity of two parts that had yielded an outcome that was nothing short of inharmonious. It's interesting how the fever and turbulence of one's surroundings can, at times, result in the most calmed and contained of workings. This is the place from which these works were conceived, as they were forged by storm and stress. I would sit never too alone in front of my computer by night and compose while my thoughts would slip ever so slightly into possibilities of detailed night, a place away from the fury of days into a place in which these works were realized, far from heat, but somewhere colder; somewhere bathed in wonderful oceans of ice. All that surrounded me seemed disrupted and volatile, however, I came to find, in fact, that this heat holds snow."

- Christopher McFall , June 2008

PRESS RELEASE

Rising figure in the vast nebula of experimental music, Christopher McFall is a phonographer whose work is heavily permeated with sound elements extracted from his immediate urban environment in Kansas City, Missouri (USA)... Carefully captured for their representativeness of certain personal emotional states, his field recordings have a deep intimate meaning...then, they are almost surgically dissected, manipulated or/and processed, and finally reassembled in close detailed cathartic compositions...
To his credit comes already a long list of virtual releases on numerous netlabels (Filament Recordings, Laboratoire Moderne, Alg-a, Homophoni, Clinical Archives, Con-v, Test Tube, and/Oar), and also a batch of CDs for Entr'acte, Gears of Sand, and Sourdine...
Constantly exploring new methodologies of approach, and listening in compulsively to his surroundings, he'll undoubtedly be more written about, so keep an eye on his next masterpieces, both solo and collaborative...
On his Mystery Sea sort of innermost diary "This Heat Holds Snow", he pinpoints life's inherent contradictions...

Afloat & shivering
furtive voices percolate
making time standing still...
Long hollow sounds
scrape the dregs
Our thin skins
are gone through by dark streams
& unspoken dreams...
-
The city sleeps,
and we hear its sighs,
articulated absences,
harsh rain fading our illusions,
our dust memories...
Small tides lick the walls,
swallowing the pale lights,
radiating
like an ultimate gesture of atonement...

TRACKS

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.

LENGTH

41'40

REVIEWS

VITAL WEEKLY 611|Frans De Waard
Despite the fact that McFall's name starts with an 'M', doesn't mean he will be on par with Muslimgauze, Merzbow or Machinefabriek in terms of production of new releases. Its perhaps merely coincidence that very soon after his Sourdine release (see Vital Weekly 640) there is a new one. If it moves to anywhere, I'd say that McFall doesn't go for the aquatic theme approach that Mystery Sea is so well-known for, but that he stays with both feet on the ground. Transferring the sounds of city life rather than the city - hardly a strange thing since Kansas City is not quite close to the sea. Although I do like McFall's music, I have a feeling that the five parts of 'This Heat Holds Snow' do not necessarily add much to his latest work on Sourdine. The low end rumbling of the wind howling through empty streets, the crackling of footsteps in snow, and the high pitched sounds of plug ins transforming that material. Its by no means an easy job that he does here, or a hasty one, but it's just that it sounds a bit too familiar. Whereas say Roel Meelkop knows how create something in similar ways that sound different, this is a bit too much of the same. Good, but too much.
vital weekly

JUST OUTSIDE|Brian Olewnick  
In several senses, not so dissimilar from the Jaeger, but both subtler and a tad less immediately engaging but probably as ultimately potent. McFall has released several strong discs in recent years and this one fits in well, utilizing field recordings with who-knows-what else, forming bleak, windswept soundscapes that might not immediately wow, but steadily work their way under one's skin. Another very good recording from McFall. Also limited to 100 copies at Mystery Sea.
just outside

WONDERFUL WOODEN REASONS|Ian Holloway  
American soundscaper McFall here presents a bleak and foreboding soundworld full of trepidation and disquiet.  I'm uncertain as to the methodology behind what I'm hearing but what I am certain of is that much of the sound on display here is derived from processed field recordings made in and around his home base of Kansas City.  Is the music he creates from these a representation of the place or of his feelings with regard to it? If so then it must be a hell hole of biblical proportions as there is not even the slightest hint of light or relief in the music he's composed.  The five constituent tracks of isolationist noise-drone, rumble and grind establishing a sandpaper-sharp foundation that are accompanied by an almost insectile, skittering of sounds that one can almost feel or by organic belches of hazy noise that surge queasily from the speakers. 
This is probably the darkest sounding album I've heard from the  Mystery Sea stable and as ever it's an absolute corker.
wonderful wooden reasons

CYCLICDEFROST |Max Schaefer  
This Heat Holds Snow works in and through a threatening atmosphere, but is nowhere concerned with catching hold of it, of partaking in impassive representation, for it’s everywhere engulfed in the tension, care and commitment of (ambiguous) relations and their pained yet ultimately pleasurable recollection.
There is more evidence of computer edits and post-production here, but as with many of McFall’s efforts, however sinuous, it’s still the sound of a mind in real time. Mysterious and oftentimes compelling, the pieces feature dark blasts of sourceless sound that skirl the human-inhuman divide before bursting back into realms of flesh and breath.
The disc makes a real claim for itself in being a fugue through vigorously articulated gestures. In pushing the darker regions of his sound further, McFall also brings out and heightens the potency of the cool, calming elements. As a sonic tableaux, This Heat Holds Snow is thus constantly shifting and impervious to the touch.

cyclic defrost

TEMPORARY FAULT|Massimo Ricci  
Another precious thing comes from Christopher McFall – not that there were any doubts, as nowadays the man from Kansas City is probably the overall deepest operator in this congested sector. For its large part, This Heat Holds Snow definitely belongs in Mystery Sea’s top five, on the same level of awareness and profundity of, say, Aidan Baker’s At The Fountain Of Thirst. Still, where the Canadian loopmeister utilized stratified guitars to elicit unearthly atmospheres packed with wraithlike entities, McFall continues to focus on the disquieting aspects of his urban setting to call out misplaced souls and puzzling uncertainties in a mixture of reiterative low-key mourning and hopes crumbled under the weight of an eternal world-weariness. The truly remarkable feature of this composer’s music is the perfect balance between familiarity - usually evoked by successions of events that instantly throw the susceptible receiver into a classic state of “back-to-childhood” emotional discovery - and a pinch of apprehension. The mastery with which apparently discordant factors – inner-city components, radiophonic emissions, barely audible voices, secluded rumbles – are seamed in this study on human reaction to obscurity is unequivocally impressive, as being vaguely acquainted with a sonic symptom but not able to effectively determine the source is a bewildering experience for a conscious listener. This uninterrupted displacement is what makes opuses like this a necessity, just as all the rest of McFall’s production. In this small land we don’t content ourselves with bell-and-whistle façades and bogus arcane ruminations, you know. This quiet artist delivers unsettling substance by the truckload.
temporary fault

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