THE SAND RAYS

The ever-mysterious The Sand Rays return; that is one guise, but this Canadian project uses variations of this name a lot. Also, the composer uses variations of his name, but not this time. The text on the cover is cryptic; nothing unusual there; "the sole sound source is a short, accidental recording of a humidifier with a laptop's microphone. This release is remixed works-in-progress from an upcoming eight-hour video made for overnight use". I have no idea what a video for overnight use should look like or what purpose they serve, but it's interesting to contemplate the idea. You can do this thinking when playing the thirty minutes of 'Side Two', next to the four-second long 'Introduction' (which has a one-second sound and three seconds of silence), the only track on this release. More vagueness, yes, indeed. The piece consists of twenty-nine minutes of low humming sounds, which might be a humidifier or ventilator. For me, the sound of an ordinary hot at the HQ when I have such a thing in play. There is prolonged development, mainly in the second half, by doubling or tripling the sounds, maybe playing around carefully, with sound effects, which at one point delivers a single sound that stands out, which is a very cool effect. The final minute sees everything brought to a crescendo, following which the CD ends. Throughout excellent work, a fine concept and an all too short of a release. There is not much more to tell about this, which is, perhaps, the downside of such releases.
Frans de Waard