Preslav Literary School – »Autumn Bricolage« (Clinical Archives)

Soundscapist Compositions // Clinical Archives is the biggest “Dark Ambient” Netlabel - and honestly, I never got into their catalog by heart. But their 150. release finally got me. Preslav Literary School and is the alter ego of Adam Thomas, UK-born Berlin resident, head honcho of Glosses Fur Die Masses records and serious researcher of experimental Ambient.

“Autumn Bricolage” is the MP3 re-release of Adam Thomas’ first album as PLS, published on CDr back in late 2006. Thomas labels his way of compositing “Tape Music” which means that he’s using old tape decks, dictaphones, radiobroadcast rather than digitally piling tracks. Enhanced with various found sounds and field-recordings, Collage Ambient is the new genre I’d like to coin (ah, by the way, that’s Musique Concrète, no?). Half way music, halfway aurual investigation, “Autumn Bricollage” is subtitled “Soundscapist Compositions Set In English Parkland”.

For experimental electronic music, the way things are recorded and the specific hardware used are of utmost importance. The approach of PLS results in rich textures and a specific sound that makes his tracks unique and memorable. Analogue hissing blends with lo-fi field-recordings, minimal melodies are introduced, synth textures correspond with the tonal shift in the found sound of an air con hum (or whatever). The whole album mixes seamlessly so please make sure to listen to the whole thing rather than just the track I picked!

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-652” src=”https://phlow-magazine.com/images/psl_live.jpg”

Anonymous Soundcapist (photos by James Grey)