Tape Loop Orchestra - Spare Rooms (2019)

Boomkat Product Review:

Cobwebbed keys and dust mite spectres perfuse the dimensions of rooms 14-19 in the third and final volume of the Tape Loop Orchestra’s ongoing ‘Interiors’ investigations, subtly refining the Tape Loop Orchestra sound from vast and moor-like to minimalist and economic. Big tip if you're into Tim Hecker, Basinski, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Richard Skelton.

Again accompanied by a booklet of evocative “found” images, TLO vicariously probes our relationship to space and time thru the prism of domestic life, and more specifically, thru the spaces once inhabited by others. His music is a metaphor for the plasmic, entropic energy of human spirits, and their referential ephemera, using the glimpses of other peoples lives - as found in the booklet - as cues for haunting strokes of dilapidated piano coupled with cosmic sighs that strafe the soundfield like the timelapse of midwinter sun dialling an empty bedroom. The LP features two related pieces, while the CD revolves one long, immersive track formed of outtakes.

“Rooms are an incarnation of the people who inhabit them. The selection of items are signs of status, emblems of their aspirations and signatures of private lives. Even when empty the omnipotence of the inhabitants is on display through the soft furnishings, artworks and trinkets.

Empty Time is the third volume of Tape Loop Orchestra’s Interiors series. Across the series TLO adopts a restrained minimal approach, focusing on the spatial aspects of sound TLO offers up a soundtrack to interiors bereft of inhabitants. Offering his own collection of found photos as a visual guide the listener is invited to meditate on the spaces we inhabit and what ephemeral energy is left behind when they are not in use.”