Idyll E.P.

Test Tube 059 (mp3 release)

http://hop.over-blog.com/
Reprise en douceur des chroniques d’albums longs ou courts avec ce très beau ep signé My Fun un londonien du nom de Justin Hardison qui a déjà sorti de nombreuses productions principalement sous le nom de My Fun. Au programme de cette nouvelle sortie sur le net label portugais Test tube on découvre des bruits divers enregistrés dans la nature associés à des sonorités électroniques finies et cristallines, ainsi qu’à des sonorités acoustiques, le tout arrangé sur ordinateur.
Le résultat donne une musique ambient, planante, très réussie, pleine de jolies micro-mélodies ; une musique évocatrices du printemps, de la nature verdoyante, du ciel bleu. Un album lumineux et fort recommandable en ces temps de grisaille. A noter que le garçon propose un blog (sound journal) mêlant sons enregistrés au gré du temps (field recordings) et retravaillés associés à des photos. Très intéressant.

touchingextremes.org /Jan 2007
Picture a more modest version of Philip Jeck crossed with the polaroid of Peter Wright's little brother and you'll have a (still distant) idea of My Fun. I think this music is just lovely. The CD-EP contains four tracks - less than 25 minutes total - confirming Justin Hardison as a fascinating specimen of obscure sound artist unassumingly working with ear-pleasing multisource collage techniques. In the author's words, the pieces were "inspired by themes of nostalgia, finding beauty in the ordinary and pleasure in slowness"; that's exactly what one feels during these simple yet engaging constructions of loops and found sounds. Percussive calls, like the windchimes hanging from the ceiling in many people's rooms, create irregular repetitions that show no bad intentions. As the record goes on, we're treated to unpretentious aural pastels where children's voices and gentle electronics create immaculate visions of ingenuity. In the second half of the disc, "Black sky" and "Slowness" take us into more intimidating territories, taped voices (Pink Floyd-style) and darker drones encysting our predisposition with a sense of uneasiness which is left to rot within our thoughts by the abrupt end of the soundscape.

Rare Frequency / December 2006
My Fun is the slightly eccentric nom de guerre of Justin Hardison, a musician, who uses field recordings, lush electronics and samples to make quite lovely, if also quite bittersweet music. With this, his second mp3 release, Hardison has refined the basic template that made his first, The Quality of Something Audible, such an enjoyable, quirky treat, creating a more stylistically cohesive release. As its title implies, Idyll EP is pastoral and contemplative in tone, full of the soft chiming of bells and quiet, percussive creaks and crackles. The four tracks unlock and evolve at a leisurely pace linked together with a loose, sketchlike sense of narrative, together with a similar palette of sounds and samples. The overall sequence of Idyll of field recordings (rain, children’s voices, birds, wind) and delicately processed organic sounds evokes subtle emotional and atmospheric shifts over time, drawing you very gently into its charmingly relaxed soundscape, before dumping you unceremoniously back into reality at its conclusion. Appropriately idyllic listening.

LaFresto / December 09, 2006
Test Tube sort presque autant d'albums qu'il y a de semaines dans l'année actuellement. Ce pourrait être une drôle de déconvenue si les sorties baissaient en qualité ou une réelle surprise si le contraire. Idyll de My Fun est ambiant, reposant, visuel et finalement très actuel. On y croise des sons de la vie de tous les jours, plutôt axés prairies et printemps, des mélodies cristallines et quelques nappes d'apparat qui enveloppent un ensemble de bonne facture et assez agréable. Des oiseaux, un peu de pluie en passant, un éclat de vent, quelques bruissements... Allez, c'est une belle surprise pour qui veut s'aérer.

DaveX [Startling Moniker] Nov.21, 2006
“Idyll” offers the same lush recording quality as “The Quality of Something Audible,” but slightly more immediate. Not yet released (it is scheduled for December by net-label Test Tube), “Idyll” has a “later that evening” feel that makes it a fine companion to “The Quality of Something Audible.” Although it easily stands on its own, for listeners who enjoy hearing an artist’s growth over time, playing the two albums back-to-back is irresistable. As for sound, “Idyll” has a slightly darker presence. The second of four tracks, “Home Tape” makes use of bell sounds or chimes, something like a old rocking chair, wind noise, and digital effects. “Black Sky” uses static or tide sounds to back a similar, but less-friendly, chiming pattern of organ and muted bell tones. A heartbeat and sampled voices create an uneasiness that simply is not present in “The Quality of Something Audible.” In “Slowness,” the looping strings are joined by an insistent high pitch as they simulataneously are stuttered. Scratching electrical hums beat from side to side before being suddenly silenced. For listeners, it may be jarring to realize just how “narrative” this album really is when they are literally dumped out of it at the end.

Matteo Uggeri [Sands Zine] / Nov. 21, 2006
Non è un mistero, soprattutto per chi segue queste pagine, che spesse volte le così dette net labels (vd. anche gli articoli su ctrl+alt+canc et similia) propongono materiali di qualità eccezionale al pari o quasi di uscite discografiche su supporti materiali. Così, anche questi portoghesi di Tube Test possono deliziarci con opere validissime quali questo EP di Justin Hardison, in arte My Fun, ispirato ai temi della nostalgia e di un calviniano elogio della lentezza.
Nulla di nuovo né nei temi né nei suoni, che propongono una delicatissima musica tra l’ambient, il glitch e la ricerca sonora dalle parti dello Stefan Mathieu di “Sad Mac”. Forse non altrettanto sublimi come quelli di quest’ultimo, ma certamente molto ben fatti sono i quattro brani che si dipanano nei 24 minuti del disco tra uccellini che cantano, campanelle, field recordings vari e ronzii, il tutto sempre di una delicatezza rara e dolce, forse vicina alle ultime fatiche del nostrano Fhievel, con il quale My Fun condivide anche la tendenza a volte a virare leggermente verso atmosfere più tese e meno soft. Ne è un esempio il finale della conclusiva Slowness, che con i suoi otto minuti rappresenta il momento più aspro e – a mio avviso – forse meno riuscito momento dell’album.
Le prime tre tracce, invece, sono capolavori di morbida naivité, dei quali consiglierei senza dubbio l’acquisto... invece basta scaricarli dalla rete.

Vital Weekly #551/ November 07, 2006
More field recordings put to music here by My Fun (see also Vital Weekly 471 and 504), also known as Justin Hardison. It's a bit of an odd name, My Fun, as it implies different music than what he offers. On the 'Idyll EP' he moves away from his previous sound, the more rhythmic kind of microsound, Fennesz influenced crackle music into a more organized, organic based microsound, entirely culled from field recordings. Recordings of voices from the ether, children playing outside and such like are used here, and are set against a backdrop of waving sound, that sound like palm trees in the wind. No use of classical music, this moves into a more abstract kind of music that is highly minimal, quite narrative and throughout quite good. All without creating something that is highly new or original, but throughout executed with great care and skill. Ambient glitch of the highest order - and that is fine on a dark sunday afternoon.»