WANDER
Mini-CDr
PRESS / REVIEWS
Reviewed on WONDERFUL WOODEN REASONS
http://wonderfulwoodenreasons.homestead.com/current.html
Wander is a side project of Beequeen which is the long-time project of Dutch musicians Freek Kinkelaar and Frans de Waard (who apart from recording under a plethora of other identities is also the pen (or should that be keyboard) behind the always essential Vital magazine).
A cursory reading of the Wander page at the Beequeen website leads me to believe that this project was established to further the drone and ambient experimentation that defined the earlier tactics of that group before their embracing of more pop elements sent their sounds along a different path. Here there is very little pop and Wander produce an altogether harsher and chaotic sonic brew than I was expecting. The early part of the piece is dominated by a siren-like tone beset by waves of jagged noise until roughly the half-way point where they are replaced by hissing showers of silvery static.
It's the first half of this EP that was of most interest to me the second seeming a little under-developed. The two halves are quite distinct with only the barest of transition time between the two which does leave them feeling a tad disconnected. For my first visit to the Wander soundworld though it was an intriguing experience.
Reviewed on VITAL WEEKLY
http://www.vitalweekly.net/
Wander is the drone project of Beequeen (and you all know who that is!) and this single piece of nineteen minutes resulted from an accident involving itunes, as was the accompanying image of a semi naked girl sliced with digital drop outs a result of an accident in downloading. More ambient than drone with whiteish noises the piece resembles electronic abstract field recordings, in two sections- the first slowly rhythmical mixes of noise and oscillations reminiscent of old FM synthesis the second section builds in intensity of white noise. How much the product of accident and deliberate alteration is difficult to detect, the whole thing however resembles the found objects along the tide mark, surreal, strange and at times somehow poignant, such finds brought home and kept on a shelf or in a draw as tokens of something now gone, lost. (jliat)
