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Surgeon at Awakenings Easter 2011, Gashouder, Amsterdam. Wow. Yes, we’re really very impressed.
Find his set on SoundCloud here.
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Surgeon - Radiance (Breaking the Frame, Dynamic Tension, 2011)
Sounds like he’s willing energy out of thin air. It doesn’t get more techno than this… well, until Those Who Do Not.
“As far as the tracks themselves go, regardless of what you like, know, think you know, would like to know, know you would like, think you would like if you knew, would know if you liked, and what not, check out Radiance. Not because it’s a career high, but because of that monstrous bass line, and the way it balances with shimmering shiny synth passages and opaque, menacing mechanical whip cracks.” — maroko
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Tension & Release
…I manipulate the symbols of music by not giving people what they want all the time. I use frustration as a tool, and work with a model of tension and release. For instance, I play something that’s deliberately difficult and unfamiliar – so people won’t like it. And then I give them a reward or resolution, moving on to something they’ll like. It’s not sadism – it’s a balance of pleasure and pain that makes the whole thing work.
— Anthony Child, Habitual Symbol Manipulator (interview by Louise Jolly on Semionaut)
(Photo credit: Marek Petraszek)
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The upcoming Surgeon album, Breaking The Frame, condensed into 4 minutes. Out on Dynamic Tension end of May. Back in the grinder.
In his words:
This album isn’t about “entertainment,” it’s about transformation, and transformation requires effort on behalf of the aspirant.
My initial idea for this album project was to explore ideas of science fiction, but when I started the groundwork, it soon became obvious to me that my journey was one to inner rather than outer space. I studied the music of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Eliane Radigue, and Alice Coltrane, all of whom made deeply spiritual, abstract music. I was searching for the deep spiritual essence that lay behind the surface structures of their individual music.
This album is the closest I have been to reaching that point. It has nothing to do with nihilism or dystopia; it has a purely utopian aesthetic.
