After “Fragile.Flicker.Fragment” ( 2011) and “Four Shibusa” (2012), “Rift Patterns“ is Monty Adkins‘ third full album release for the Audiobulb label.
It’s a digital download release (no physical counterpart) that comes with an interactive iBook containing music, text, moving image and film, created by Deborah Templeton (writer), Jason Payne (video artist), and Stephen Harvey (photographer, graphic designer) in response to Monty Adkins’ music.
“‘Rift Patterns‘ is about the psychogeographical exploration of places and how they impact on our identity and feelings. Psychogeography (‘an approach to geography that emphasizes playfulness and ‘drifting’ around urban environments’ – Wikipedia) has historically been associated with the exploration of our cities and the ‘drift’, and has been described by Joseph Hart as “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape”.
In ‘Rift Patterns‘, Adkins continues the drift from the city, into the country and into our inner world of thoughts and relationships.”
Adkins also ‘drifts’ away from predictable musical paths by using found objects from the many locations visited, placed in the piano to prepare the strings and produce strange (sometimes interestingly dissonant) sonorities. Which are always very subtle, by the way, and nowhere as obtrusive as a ‘prepared piano’ can sometimes be.
Most of the album is relatively calm, tender, contemplative music. However, in contrast, there are a few exceptions to that rule like the (aptly titled) “Extatic Drift” and the climax-filled “Clockwork Cities”.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell anything about the iBook accompanying the release, since this interactive format is Apple only – you’ll need an iPad to fully enjoy its content. Non iBook users will have to do with a PDF version of the book, which of course is not interactive, but still it’s a nice addition and an interesting experiment in enhancing the possibilities of a digital release format.
Even without the additional interactive book, “Rift Patterns“ is an adventurous listen, and a perfect background to you own private ‘Drifts’.
Oh, and one last thing: if you missed out on “Four Shibusa“ in 2012, be sure to correct that as soon as you can!
Monty Adkins – Soliloquy