It’s been awhile. Forgive me. It’s been a little crazy around these parts.
These days, we’ve been listening to an incredibly evocative piece of music. This particular composition is imbued with the essence of water. Entitled POOL, it was crafted from many smaller loops of water sounds, assembled into a series of 7 stories, which then coalesced into the ultimate 25-minute long piece. It was born in the midst of waves and droplets, mists and torrents. It is fluid yet crystalline. Malleable yet structured.
The product of Argentinian composer, radio producer, and sound artist Sol Rezza, POOL was commissioned by the Chile-based Tsonami Festival. There, it was presented as a radio piece that was “based on the notion of the power of transformation of the element of water, as a continuum that balances one of the life cycles of our planet, and the one that is being radically affected by climate change.”
Not coincidentally, the 7 narrative elements that comprise the piece seamlessly waft into each other, the liquid-sourced field recordings melding with more abstract electronic sonic elements. Icy rhythms and glacial drones exist alongside each other, creating an emotional churn. Peaceful, then excited, harmonious, then vigorous; the cycle repeats across a titanic 25 minutes.
For the digital release, which is accompanied by a 5-part graphical score, Rezza has included each of the 7 segments as unique tracks to investigate on their own. It’s here, where each idea is encapsulated within its own small space, that one can really investigate the essence of POOL itself. A listener can interrupt the flow, perhaps to focus on the heightened boiling of “Loop III”, or maybe to ruminate on the melancholy piano of “Loop IV”. Each section can be interrogated and enjoyed apart from the others.
You too can absorb the fluidity of POOL, both as a mammoth composition, and as a series of vignettes. Head over to Sol Rezza’s Bandcamp and choose your entry point into this aquatic adventure in sound.