Oscillatorial Binnage

Agitations: Post-Electronic Sounds

Oscillatorial Binnage breathes life into inanimate objects by transforming non-musical tools into an endless source of timbral possibilities; the process is organic instead of relying on effect pedals to bring out aural nuances.

In the previous episode of our listening adventures, I stated that merely using poetic resources to describe the sound of a particular piece of music does not qualify as a proper review, but from time to time we’ll come across a cul de sac which will force us to just make a sinopsis of the work at hand. This tends to happen more often when we’re dealing with sound-art more than with traditional music, but sometimes we come across great works that deserve more than just a technical synopsis. This may be one of those cases.

This is how the review could be over in just one paragraph: “For Agitations: Post-Electronic Sounds, Oscillatorial Binnage transformed non-musical objects into an endless source of timbral possibilities through an organic process instead of relying on effect pedals to bring out aural nuances”. Fair enough, but we’re still missing the obligatory poetic description for the romantics; something like: “Oscillatorial Binnage breathe life into inanimate objects”. Cute! Now our review is complete! Not quite.

While both would be accurate, Agitations has more to offer than just random sounds; it is actually quite an emotional experience despite of being completely abstract.

The London-based electroacoustic collective rely on different techniques to take advantage of the natural timbral qualities of everyday objects, amplified through mechanisms of their own creation; one of the elements that may be considered their trademark, is the use of electromagnetic forcefields to induce vibration. Granted, the general principle behind this practice is not necessarily new, as we already know that music is everywhere, and the whole philosophy behind experimental music has been to put the composer in a more passive role, letting the object/instrument randomly unfold, but Binnage has been exploring this concept in their own particular way for quite some time now, being active since 2004.

With a setup that looks more like a dirty kitchen than your average music experimentation lab, the group creates bizarre titillating soundscapes which mostly drone out becoming more and more full, revealing different textures as they grow, as if we were zooming in on the object itself.

No musical instruments were used in Agitations (and if they were, it wasn’t in a traditional way), but there are points in which you can swear you’re listening to a guitar-driven drone album. The first three minutes of “Lamppostian Fronds” sound as if they might belong on Sunn O)))’s Pyroclasts, mostly because of how the feedback and distortion behave, creating a combination of low and high pitches that extend towards infinity in a buzzsaw crescendo; in other instances, the appearance of sparkling natural harmonics will remind us of Rădulescu’s spectralism.

“Lamppostian Fronds” and “Lamp Post One” might be the most energetic out of all the tracks on Agitations since they seem to have more components that make them sound richer, but that’s far from indicating that the other pieces lack range, even if the dynamics of the album remain similar all throughout; however, each object resonates with unique overtones, managing to avoid becoming too monotonous. “Applause Round” has this effervescent texture that evokes embers slowly devouring an object; “Abscission Two” imitates the sound of electricity emanating from a generator.

I showed a video of one the sessions for Agitations to a friend of mine, and his remark alluded to how primitive the setup looked, and in a way, he’s sort of right. There’s something primal about not using actual musical instruments to focus solely on the natural aural properties of regular objects, but there’s also a futuristic edge due to the complexity of the mechanisms that were built in order to achieve this; in their own way, Oscillatorial Binnage create timeless pieces which have the essence of Russolo’s teachings down to their core, inviting the audience to experience the world with “ears more sensitive than eyes”.

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