The Quality of Something Audible (MP3/CDR)

THE WIRE Issue 264, February 2006

You could think of a release like this as a kind of audio blog - a series of sonic events linked together in an order in which their discoverer finds interesting, before being left hanging in cyberspace for passing surfers to investigate. But to do so would diminish the artistry involved. Despite using such a self - deprecatory moniker, sound artist Justin Hardison creates collages where the source material is as beguiling as the placement is meticulous, and The Quality Of Something Audible has much to offer anyone prepared to don headphones and tune in. On a track like "Song Seven", astately, melancholy piano part occupies the centre of the stereo spectrum, while insectoid flurries of digital debris scurry to its farthest reaches. After an abrupt caesura, the piano is replaced by a doleful harp - the logic of this development unclear but somehow convincing. "Wide - Awake" also features a yin, yang pair of harp chords, this time with a faintly oriental cast - they come swathed in static and punctuated by a single, slurred guitar note that conjures a whole imaginary Morricone score. Like the whole CD, it's poised, astringent and entirely lovely. -Chris Sharp

de-bug.de

Großartige Platte mit digitalen Zauseln zwischen großer Tragik und jeder Menge Sounds die klingen, als wären sie immer in genau den Momenten aufgenommen, in denen etwas schief läuft. Meist Banalitäten, aber eben die sind es die das Leben so schwer machen, wenn z.B. ein Ballon platzt, oder einfach die Welt aus den Fugen gerät, weil man gerade zu glücklich war. Herzerreißende Platte für alle, die sich von Musik gerne mal überwältigen lassen

STASISFIELD.COM

New York-born and currently London-based composer My Fun has released his latest album, "The Quality of Something Audible." Two years in the making, the album lives up to its title, including a vast array of sonic textures and diverse instrumentation ranging from guitars and drums to harps and strings. Deftly weaving field recordings and acoustic instruments into an expansive series of sound pictures, the album works towards a brilliant fireworks climax which leaves the listener ooo-ing and aah-ing for more. Available as downloadable mp3s or CDR direct from My Fun's website, The Land Of.

VITAL WEEKLY # 504

Following his 'Sunday Best', My Fun, aka Justin Hardison, now releases a full length CDR on The Land Of, which took him two years to record. Like before, he uses field recordings and computer processing of acoustic instruments. It moves away from the previous techno related into a highly dynamic form of micro-sound, with traces of good ol' Fennesz, but without being a strict copy-cat. A track like 'Dun Laoghaire' is with it's minimalist violin playing almost a glitch copy of Steve Reich. The use of classical music (wether or not sampled from records or recorded by My Fun himself) is a nice feature that is present in more tracks. It works nicely along the processed field recordings and the digital glitches that all of these produce. Perhaps in the current day and age, not the most surprising work available (it would have fitted the microwave catalogue nicely, five or so years ago), but I played this a couple of times in a row, and thought it was quite nice, growing with every time I heard it. (FdW)

www.sandz-zine.com

Nell'austerità della sua casa, Justin Hardison realizza una disorientante combinazione tra melodia acustica e suoni registrati seguendo un suo percorso personale, lento e diradato costruito su fields recordings, beats minimali e soundscapes astratti. Il disco si muove tra acquarelli melanconici con il semplice uso di
strumenti analogici (arpa, chitarra, batteria, violino...) ispessiti da una stratificazione elettronica/rumore. 13 brani d'isolamento creativo che probabilmente avrebbero bisogno di un accompagnamento visivo, ma il tutto è comunque da sé di grande effetto. Se è vero che l'elettronica crea un'insensibile freddezza, è anche vero che tra le maglie di quella freddezza si possano nascondere emozioni quali senso di perdita e un'altro di scoperta che sanno di scorticare un cuore, quindi lasciate che il cuore decida se un disco è speciale. Se siete curiosi ed avete un animo da esploratori scaricatevi l'intero
disco sul suo sito personale. - Filippo Buratti

Forced Exposure Employee Top Ten List
Susanna Bolle
www.forcedexposure.com

Asher, graceful degradation (conv) cd-r
Cluster, 71 (water) cd
COH, above air (eskaton) cd
Felix Kubin, idiotenmusic (ultraeczema) 7"
Lionel Marchetti, red dust (crouton) 3 x 3: cd
My Fun - the quality of something audible (self - released) cdr
Anthony Pateras & Robin Fox, flux compendium (editions mego) cd
Krzysztof Penderecki - the manuscript found in saragossa (obuh) lp
janek schaefer - migration (bip-hop) cd
pierre schaeffer, l'oeuvre musicale (ina-grm/emf) 3cd
keith fullerton whitman, live in lisbon (kranky) cd

Touching Extremes

There is much to like in this album by Justin Hardison, a London based musician who works under various pseudonyms, My Fun being one of them. We enjoy the irregular yet familiar patterns of everyday sounds, the evocative quality of field recordings that Hardison expands and chews through a beautiful use of looping and layering, the use of instruments with a knowledgeable naiveté which renders the music a cross of emotional reminiscences and pure amusement. The sea, children at play, a phone conversation - everything is perfectly assembled in a series of powerful images enhanced by a complete dynamic control and an excellent panoramic placement of every source. Beautiful things all over the record, with a human touch rarely found in most of today's extracool-super-glitch collections of laptop fragments; "The quality of something audible" is a self explanatory title in a palatable pot-pourri of big, even bigger, fresh-sounding pleasures.