Richard Chartier picks up his Pinkcourtesyphone to dial in a digital expansion of Three Themes, originally a gold dust-like 7″ of just 10 copies (Superior Standards, 2012). The release hosts long-form versions of the “Afternoon” and “Evening” themes from Foley Folly Folio (2012) and a reprise version of “62000 Valentines,” an isolationist sketch from A Ravishment Of Mirror (Dragon’s Eye, 2014).
With sprawl space in spades (23+ mins), “Afternoon Theme” lullingly loops two drowsy woodwind-like phrases droopy with hall reverb and other FX stirred in, slowly shifting focus one to another. It evolves more languorously than FFF‘s version in its nagging hypnagogue recursions. “Evening Theme” seeks to expand the expressive range of the composition, imparting a tidal lap and swell dynamic. It ends with “62000 Valentines (envelope version),” an initial rhythmic sound-chafe ceding to a settling density of drones. The almost winsome lull of the first two cuts is offset by a chillier haze in a slow-release minimal loop work that navigates spaces between Chartier’s own-name work and other themes contained here. It (ma)lingers, a steady smear on the event horizon, nigh on 20 minutes, making for a fitting finale.
Overall, Chartier sublimates the lab coat laptop-iary his name is known for to the PCP persona, one which gives voice to a more knowingly ludic side, here channelling waking dream sequences bearing traces of influence from sometime associate, William Basinksi (note prior coupling, Untitled 1-3). Three Themes is an album that makes a suggestive and seductive soundtrack for come-downs and come-ons alike.
(igloomag.com)
…an expanded digital version of the elusive Pinkcourtesyphone release, ‘Three Themes’, made available after a micro-run of 10 x 7″ copies for Superior Standards in 2012. Also sharing elements with his magical ‘Foley Folly Folio’ album, it unfurls long versions of the gorgeous ambient drifts, ‘Afternoon’ and ‘Evening’ themes, plus the doomier envelope mix of ‘62000 Valentines’ to soundtrack your come-downs and come-ons.
(boomkat.com)
Billed by the label as “music for wine time”, this triple header of ambient, shapeless sonic activity comes with little explanation or prior information. The opener would not have been out of place on Mica Levi’s Under The Skin OST- ominous synths bubbling beneath the surface with little sense of meter or melody. It’s followed up on by Evening Theme, an equally unlit composition with real playback quality. The third instalment comes in the shape of 62000 Valentines where a hollow soundscape plays out and sees the release to a close. A mysterious and beguiling influx of ambient mastery.
(bleep.com)
A few months after the surprising and wonderful “Description Of Problem”, Richard Chartier back to churn out a job using the alias Pinkcourtesyphone, enough to suggest that it will be a new license fee evasion of its typical post-microsonoro. This time there are three suite born and developed within different paths, united under the same roof and published only in digital format.
“Afternoon Theme”, dating from 1997, is a long digression dream of twenty-three minutes, built on minimalist repetition of a single theme in the strict sense. A melodic sequence of oboe around which Chartier builds a monolith environment, using the basic sound effects (reverb, envelope, etc.) and giostrandoli so as to make them unique expressive elements of his palette.
“Evening Theme”, dated 2011 however, revolves around a heart full of lights and electronic impulses reduced bone. Just on the intensity of the light beam Chartier works to expand the expressive range of the composition, approaching in a decisive manner to the more organic forms and contemporary generative ambient music. A meditation of the most beautiful and impressive that the artist has ever developed.
Shorter and “canonical”, “62000 Valentines” is the reprise version of a sketch immersive dark-ambient enclosed in “A Ravishment Of Mirror”, released last year for Dragon’s Eye. Fifteen minutes abundant painting of darkness, at the turn of open space and empty cathartic. Together with the other two monologues, both unpublished and from media experiences, composes an unmissable gem confirming the state of grace of a formidable project.
(ondarock.it)
“Music for wine time”… which, according to the titles of the first two tracks Afternoon Theme and Evening Theme, covers the afternoon as well as the evening. Both themes are extended (23 minute) and revised versions of work from 1997.
The third track 62000 Valentines (envelope version) is the extended version of a track that previously appeared on A Ravishment of Mirror.
The first two tracks are perfect if you’re in a ‘Basinski state of mind’: endless loops of a single simple phrase, showly shifting the background into the foreground, almost unnoticeably changing – like the light during wine time.
62000 Valentines is different: the sound of a vinyl runout-groove gradually gets accompanied by a very deep (Thomas Köner-like) drone background that slowly becomes unavoidable and all-encompassing.
(ambientblog.net)
