Antonymes – Like Rumours of Hushed Thunder

Hot on the heels of April’s full-length release “The Licence to Interpret Dreams” comes this short limited-edition EP from Ian Hazeldine, aka Antonymes. The seven tracks were recorded, one per day, over the Christmas holiday period, and will be released as an exquisitely packaged 3” CD-R on Time Released Sound. In contrast to the occasionally grandiose “Licence”, the EP is a simple, stripped-down affair, focusing almost exclusively on the piano, with very subtle electronics and violin scattered here and there.

The philosopher and music critic Theodor W. Adorno once suggested that the music of his friend and mentor Alban Berg was “intent on falling silent”, a characteristic shared by several of the short pieces on “Like Rumours”. Often, the spaces in between the sparse, ringing piano notes seem to be foregrounded over and above the notes themselves; often there is hesitation, as if Hazeldine was reluctant to leave the empty space, to turn it from a space ‘after’ into a space ‘before’. The piano is always leaving. And transgressing, too – breaking the sacred quiet, the vow of silence. Stating clearly what had previously only been a rumour.

In their brief, underdeveloped form, the pieces bear a relation to another kind of note: the footnote, the note in the margin, and also to the artist’s sketch. In artists’ sketches, we can see more clearly certain aspects of their working methods, their sources of inspiration, the elements of their style. In this instance, Hazeldine’s love of the piano and deep respect for silence become apparent. But sketches also raise the question of ‘completeness’. Is a sketch complete in itself, or is it only a preparation for the full-scale painted or sculpted masterpiece? Where falls the line between a sketch and a complete work? What about sketches that are never developed further, preparatory drawings for paintings never painted? Are they left hanging open, unfinished, waiting in vain for the day when their potential will be exploited on canvas? Is their value in what they are, or what they herald? Are they like a promise, a rumour? Are they a kind of ellipse…?

Sometimes sketches find their place in an artist’s work precisely because of their unfinished nature, which allows them to point to things that remain hidden in large-scale works – an ability that the seven sketches on “Like Rumours” clearly demonstrate. Throw in a letter ‘A’ hand-crafted out of recycled piano keys and some very fine packaging, and you have the perfect belated Christmas gift.

- Nathan Thomas for Fluid Radio

The release is sold out at source but there are a few copies available over at Stashed Goods

Digital copies are available via the Antonymes Bandcamp web site

www.timereleasedsound.com
www.antonymes.co.uk