Probably one of the greatest feats a musician can accomplish is to overpower their listener and take them inside the world they have created, making them experience their music in more ways that just aurally. And many musicians of all different genres have done that. Experimentalist Tim Walters has attempted just this task with The Dry Well, a two-part, six-track journey into extreme aural soundscapes, and he has succeeded at it quite brilliantly.
Using acoustic sounds as his starting point, Walters digitally processes and combines them into dark, startling, spiritual tapestries of noises built around two differing concepts. The first three tracks are built around the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest-known surviving work of literature. The harsh and intense sounds put into these pieces do well in painting dark, magical and mythical imagery, evoking the mystery of ancient legends. The use of voice on "The Descent of Inanna" especially carries a strong emotional current with whispered, emotional chanting and singing, as if summoning the gods themselves to appear or intervene in the creation of the piece.
The other three tracks take their cue from another direction. With the use of only a kalimba, an African thumb piano, built by an eight-year-old girl, Walters creates sounds not normally associated with that instrument. The first two of the three pieces retain an African flavor, as the kalimba is still recognizable. The last piece however moves far away from that sound and into a dark dreamland all its own, more reminiscent of the disc's first half than of the African plains.
An intense work that will undoubtedly enthrall fans of dark ambient and experimental music, The Dry Well creates its own unique atmosphere. It's visual music for your ears. (Parabrisas)
Truly fascinated, I found myself completely absorbed in the aural world of Tim Walters. His CD, _The Dry Well_, divides into two sections with each containing three pieces. One of the selections revolves entirely around the sound of a kalimba (African thumb piano) that is electronically manipulated until the original sound source is no longer identifiable. This whole process lasts for over 30 minutes and finishes with the climactic title track. The other three pieces are based on an ancient legend and likewise use acoustic sounds that are processed through technology. The first piece, "Two-Thirds God," has buzzing sounds that build in intensity and are punctuated by percussive attacks. Next, vocal noises take center stage in "Descent of Inanna" before the piece explodes and captivatingly dissolves. Well articulated and structured, these pieces create sonic experiences that will resonate profoundly between the ears. (imr)
Try and imagine if you will a child's hand built kalimba being digitally restructured into ambient tonal arrangements and you'd have the sound you would be hearing on the later half the The Dry Well. Much of the remainder of the album lacks all beat or metallic framework usually present in natural occurring sound manipulation. The influences of many principle natural ambient artists such as Brian Lustmord has had a profound effect on many a musician as of late and Tim Walters is no exception. Much of the time as I listen to this music I think of late nights spent alone as a child without adult supervision as I listened to the house creak and sway in the wind. There is a great deal of reminiscent quality within distinct pieces of sound present on this album that I can readily identify having experienced throughout my life. I find it both eerie and vaguely ecstatic that I find myself going through deja vu while playing this album in the background while accomplishing many of my daily tasks. Tim Walters has done an excellent job of quantifying musically many of the memories evoked by sound whether intentional or otherwise. (Sonic Boom)
Tim Walters: THE DRY WELL - This CD is in from Coredump records. If you're "in" to improv (like WE here at "I.N." are), you will TRULY enJOY this! Very DENSE (tho' not "plodding") material that refuses to be categorized. In OTHER words - it's HEALTHY improvisational work. I was more fascinated with the background bellwork than with the voiceovers. Some excellent stringboard work that actually comes off sounding (somewhat) "organized" - as opposed to "mangled". Now, to be sure, you would NOT play this as background music for any "regular" gathering... it's NOT "dance music". My only criticism is that the "spacy" sections got (just a bit) too "quiet" for me to hear - simple answer, right? TURN IT UP! This work was intended to be ABSORBED, anyway. Tim Walters has a "handle" on this art - I greatly enJOYed his work, and those of you out there who aren't AFRAID to travel new paths will, too! For those inclined to explore, this is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! ( Improvijazzation Nation)
Ever wonder what it sounds like *inside* that trash can icon on your desktop? Tim Walters knows. _The Dry Well_ is deep and hollow with digital echoes, and trashy metallic samples (including, prominently, a kalimba) provide much of the source material. No pop music roots are detectable: The texture mutates continuously, the way they teach you when you study electroacoustic composition techniques in college--and indeed, much of the album was realized at the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. The gaps in "Valence" are a Cageian meditation on unpredictability. (Keyboard)
Intense electroacoustic music, this, derived from unlikely sources, stark, shuddering and resonant. Blitz your ears stuff really, though very well done. Somewhere betwixt the harsher scrapings of early Nurse With Wound and Iancu Dumitrescu. Interesting, yet the sort of thing I really need to be in the mood for to enjoy. (Audion)
Fine electroacoustic music from a relatively new American label. The first three of the six pieces here are inspired by th eepic of Gilgamesh. There's a suitably ritualistic tone to them, highly reminiscent of the industrial-ritualist music of the mid-80s, in fact. There's plenty of dark reverberation, occasional metallic percussion, raucous buzzing and droning, and chanted vocals (some mutating into and out of electronic tones), culminating in some very thoughtful electronic droning. Unusually "atmospheric" for a computer music composer. The other three pieces are based on recordings of a home-made thumb-piano. Soft pinging, shimmering squeaks, and gentle chiming create a meditative quality on "For Want of a Nail"; twanging on plinking on "Valence" remind you why computer music is often spoken of nly in hushed, horrified tones. Fortunately, the final track deconstructs the sound a little more, exploring shifting timbres in a way that will probably appeal to dark-ambient fans more than hardened electro-acousticians. (EST)
This is digitally conceived Neo-Pagan vomit. And I've never tasted vomit this good. Based around the Epic of Gilgamesh, "Two-Thirds God", "Descent of Inanna", and "Under" are part of a collaboration with choreographer Marti Johnston that make for dramatic, spiritually-based sonic eruptions. Kee Kille's wailing vocals are the icing on the cake. All the soundz on the last 3 tracks originate from a Kalimba built by an 8 year old girl, along with effects of course. In the last track, "The Dry Well", the Kalimba itself is rarely recognizable because the derived soundz are so processed. It's all very multilayered, Twilightzonish, at times feedbacky, and often downright grating. And therein lies its power. Intercept this screaming beam of Post-New Age steam. And fill yer void. OK? (Sonar Map)