CD, Edgetone Records, 2009
http://conure.crunchpod.com/
This new release from Californian musician Mark Wilson, aka Conure, is basically focused on his work with soundscapes and noise manipulation more than on any kind of musical composition work as one may understand it. So this five-track album is more ambient noise oriented and rougher than his previous works.
Using his laptop and a large variety of effects devices, Wilson takes listeners on a journey through the sounds, which are actually sufficient to bring about immersion in his world, without the need for any kind of narration or explanation behind them to capture the attention. You just have to sit down and listen carefully, close your eyes and let the pictures flow in your mind. You will soon discover that if Conure’s imaginary world is surely dark and raw, it also can be quite fascinating…
The sounds used here – coming mainly from field recordings (blasts of air, grinding, growling, and so on), but also from synth pads – are of course pretty harsh, though the atmospheres they generate are mesmerizing in a way, closer to the ambient noise genre than to harsh noise. The track structures include very few rhythms and consist more of drones stacked onto one another as the track goes on. The whole thing is quite well mixed and produced, and rarely hurts the ears, even when the sounds are very shrill, like they are in tracks such as “Hobart” or “Sycan”.
Conure is indubitably one of the numerous projects that deserve some enthusiasm in a noise scene that becomes richer and richer these days.
[8/10]
— Olivier Noel