Jason Lescalleet - Archaic Architecture
Jason Lescalleet - Archaic Architecture
“Archaic Architecture” is the latest work from Jason Lescalleet, one of New England’s most talented and dedicated modern sound artists. Over the past couple of decades, Lescalleet has released highly-regarded and quality works on labels such as Kye, RRR, Erstwhile, Chondritic Sound, and most recently on his own Glistening Examples imprint, as well as collaborating with like-minded explorers of sound such as Aaron Dilloway, Graham Lambkin, and Joe Colley. On this new full-length cassette, Lescalleet turns his ear toward extended, hypnotic melody, combining it with his own personal variety of tape-damaged concréte noise. On “An Archaic Code”, overlapping sheets of lush choral organ and synthesizer meld into each other, rising and falling in consequence, sweeping and pulsing through all fields of frequency. Blanketed underneath is a subdued, purring storm of crumpled tape collage, where found sounds, microscopic textures, and incidental debris delicately scratch at the melody above with coarse piano shards. With his primitive electronics and careful pacing, Lescalleet is able to inject an incredible amount of active detail and depth into a seemingly minimal body. “Organ Music #3” is a hand-played piece of deep and lush organ chords, gothic and powerful in their magnitude. Shifting back and forth between light and dark, the melodies fall into an emotive purgatory, with a consequential production of unusual overtones can feel both strangely disorienting and holy at the same time. The sound has a bold and tangible warmth via tape saturation, built with what seems like the amplified air of a cathedral-like space, making for a raw and enveloping listening experience.