The aptly-named Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae is now up in its entirety on Bleep. It’s another 13 versions of tracks from Quaristice, comprising 149 minutes of material.
If you’re keeping count, that’s 4:50:26 of material they’ve released this year.
What we’ve got is another interpretation of “The Plc,” five versions of “Perlence,” four versions of “90101-51-1,” as well as new workings of “chenc9,” “Tankakern” and a haunting reconstruction of “Notwo.”
Oddly enough, it’s not feeling all that redundant. I remember doing a great deal of tail-chasing trying to connect the threads between Chiastic Slide and its child EPs, but this is a bit different. Where Cichlisuite and Envane were only loosely tethered to the source album by algorithm, the satellite works on (Variations) and Quadrange are more like remixes and variations.
As such, they might not be as essential for newer listeners, but they make for an odd insight into the process. It’s almost as if the proper release of Quaristice was a template upon which they could develop several iterations of the germinal material. That, or it was meant to be some sort of never-ending study in process.
Setting a work of music to tape (or hard-disc) freezes it in time, so to speak. Recording it gives it a sort of stasis and permanency, and once it’s down, that’s the interpretation the world hears. This series of releases could be construed as an attempt to escape that sort of permanency.
Or perhaps I’m reading too much into it.
In any case, Quaristice feels like a film in fast-forward, a careening, schizophrenic sequence of ideas, few of which are given time to blossom. (Variations) pulled the reins back, isolating some of the core concepts and giving them time to unfurl.
So where does this one fit? In many ways, it’s the conceptual opposite of Quaristice. The pace is slower and more contemplative, and there’s a greater sense of space in the arrangements.
“The Plc” is stripped to its base components, flooded with reverb and allowed to trundle along in a somewhat subdued manner. “Perlence Range 7” and “Perlence Suns” sprawl out as well, the first iteration giving itself ten minutes to wend through its peaks and valleys, while the second compresses the essence of “paralel Suns” into a slow dirge.
“90101-51-6” doesn’t sound that different than the original, but a closer listen reveals some odd melodic elements buried deep in the mix. “9013-2” drops the percussion and brings those elements to the forefront in a short, tenative piece. “Tkakanren” also sounds like its parent track until, at the 7-minute mark, a gorgeous but uncertain chord progression rises above the froth, eventually discorporating and fading out.
The third version of “90101-51-1” takes a slightly more aggressive tack than its brethren, while “Perlence subrange 3” gets turned into an ambient track. “chenc9-1dub” seems to be fighting its own momentum, and although it’s enjoyable enough, it still sounds like something Richard James would have done circa 2000, and it’s a bit repetitive.
With “9010171-121,” it would be easy to think things are getting redundant, but the tempo has been slowed, and the percussion made more deliberate. Oddly enough, given its name, I can make out elements of “Perlence” in the mix, which makes sense, since the following piece seems to drain the last bit of air from its parent track, and it glides out on a drone remniscient of Vladislav Delay’s work.
“notwotwo” is pleasant at first, and just as it feels that it’s running a bit too long, the channels separate and it becomes more diffuse, reminding me very strongly of Wiliam Basinski’s Disintegration Loops.
I suppose that would be the end of things, were it not for “Perlence subrange 6-36.” This could be their answer to the Orb’s Blue Room single, as it runs for nearly an hour. Unlike the Orb single, though, it doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s a nice study in regress and empty space, and although there are very subtle changes over its length, it ultimately comes down to a one-hour ambient track.
Still, it’s a good listen, and one to which I keep returning. It’s an interesting excercise to go back between the three releases we have now and compare notes. Is it worth the $13.50? Yes, if you’re a fan. Otherwise, I’d recommend (Versions), though I’m hoping Warp chooses to release it on its own at some point. Though I had my misgivings about Quaristice, after hearing it filtered through the subsequent releases, I’ve come to enjoy it as yet another possible facet of what amounts to a sort of perpetual motion mobile.
Given the repeated references to the number four in the titles, I’m left wondering if yet another release is forthcoming. In an odd sort of classical way, it’d make for an interesting structural whole. If Quaristice was the hurried exposition and (Variations) the development, then Quadrange is the Adagio. A recapitulation would seem to be in order, and it would make for a satisfying whole, if only from a weird left-brain perspective.
Then again, perhaps I’m reading too much into things.
In any case, if I were to compile a single album out of the whole shebang, this is how it would look:
Altichrye (Versions)
The Plclcpc (Versions)
plyPhon (Quaristice)
Perlence Suns (Quadrange)
Perlence Range 3 (Versions)
SonDEre-ix (Versions)
Simmm (Quaristice)
paralel Suns (Quaristice)
Tankraken (Versions)
fwzE (Quaristice)
90101-51-6 (Quadrange)
Theswere (Quaristice)
WNSN (Quaristice)
Chenc9-x (Versions)
notwotwo (Quadrange)