Donato Wharton
"Body Isolations" CD
City
Centre Offices
Genres: experimental, ambient
November 2006 |
Body Isolations is London-based Donato
Wharton's second full-length, following 2004's Trabanten.
His website features a blurry and expressionless picture of himself, and that is a pretty accurate indicator of
what this record is like. Soft, melodic soundscapes express a sort of
uncertainty and eerieness on Body Isolations, which is the most genuinely
beautiful experimental record I've heard in awhile. To pinpoint
Wharton's style is a tad challenging - it's very soundscape
oriented, with atmospheric compositions recalling post-rock and
ambient traditions. There are solid contributions from both electronic
and non-electronic sources; drones and digital manipulation are used
for sure, but much melody is added from guitar and piano, as well as
voice on the wonderful "Blue Skied Demon." Repetition is often used on
Body Isolations to achieve a kind of eerie, pretty yet
mechanical atmosphere - "Transparencies" and unsettling "The End of
the American Century" exemplify this. The pieces themselves seem like
fragments, yet they flow seamlessly and seldom leave you expecting
more; taken as a whole, Body Isolations is mesmerizing and
powerful - a potent example of sound sculpted to be beautifully
unsettling. Indeed, even at its most pristine and pretty moments, this
has something lurking beyond the superficial - a quality that is hard
to explain but impossible to ignore.
mp3s (from donatowharton.net):
absentia
87%
Fun Fact: In addition
to being a sound artist, Donato Wharton works as a freelance
Theatre Sound Operator.
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 9 tracks, 34:08,
distributed by
the label,
released 2006] |
