CERFILIC – SHOURES SOOTE
If you’re curious about the title, it originates from a line in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and translates most accurately to ‘sweet showers’. And concerning the artist alias, Cerfilic is the moniker of London-based Jamie Michael McCarthy, a seasoned musician who studied music (and played) under Gavin Bryars at Leicester Polytechnic. In the mid-80s, many composers associated with the English Experimental music scene were linked to that institution, including Gavin Bryars, John White, and Christopher Hobbs, all of whom released music on Brian Eno’s Obscure label.
|Jamie McCarthy has presented his ‘symphonic drone music’ under the Cerfilic alias since 2010.
‘Symphonic drone music’ is indeed the best way to describe the composition Shoures Soote. Starting with the slow notes of a string quartet, the grouped notes gradually become ‘seeds’ that are subjected to sound treatment, time stretching, and compacting. The 62 minutes on this recording are an extract from a work of indeterminate length.
‘I used the word ‘seed’ for these bits of material I make because everything grows out of them, but it’s appropriate too, because of the way I have to work with them: It’s a process of tending – waiting – observing what the material seems to suggest for itself.’
Shoures Soote is dedicated to McCarthy’s brother John, who passed away unexpectedly at the end of 2022. For a few months after his death, creating music felt impossible as it seemed like a betrayal of his brother. It was only when, at a poignant moment, he sensed that his brother was content with him resuming music creation and advised him, ‘you have to release death from your body and learn to live again’, that Jamie could pick up his cello once more and commence work on this piece. Thus, Shoures Soote serves as a requiem for his brother.
The music is as melancholic as it is splendid: ‘there is grief there, but it’s also an affirmation of life in the face of it.’
DIRK SERRIES – STREAMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS COMPILED
Dirk Serries’ remarkable output, both in terms of quality and quantity, manifests in various forms. His journey began in the mid-eighties under the moniker Vidna Obmana, with releases spanning until around 2005, although titles continued to emerge even after he ceased using this alias. He then transitioned to projects such as Fear Falls Burning or Microphonics, among others, showcasing his seemingly boundless creativity.
One of his notable endeavors, Streams of Consciousness, ran from 2013 to 2015, and again from 2023 up until February 2024. This ongoing project comprises 18 editions, each featuring two tracks roughly 20 minutes in duration. The titles of each edition are suffixed with a number, likely indicating the creation date in YYDDMM format. The complete series is available on the Streams Of Consciousness Bandcamp page.
Projekt Records now offers a compilation from this series, featuring a selection of 8 tracks, each drawn from a different edition. Though termed a ‘selection,’ it offers nearly three hours of profound ambient guitar drones – ‘a slowflow inner exploration of sonics and emotional states… Dirk Serries’ homage and return to pure harmonic sonic moments’. This music is purely ‘in-the-moment’ ambient, ‘relying entirely on his ability to create these linear masses of ambience from scratch and real-time on the electric guitar and just a handful of pedal effects – no computer is applied. No post-production or editing is involved.’
Generously, Projekt Records and Dirk Serries provide this compilation as a name-your-price download (for a limited time). However, for completists, the journey doesn’t end here. To be continued.