hey, i actually got an advanced copy of something! from a publicist? and i'm doing the review before it actually comes out (january 22nd)? wow, seems so very official.

v1.1
[2008, other electricities]

the name fessenden might not mean anything to most people just yet, but this two thirds chicago, one third new york-based trio has some cred. most of it coming by way of steven hess. hess is a member of mark nelson's post-labradford project pan american (since 2004-ish, i believe) and the free improv outfit, the dropp ensemble. that latter group is more of a collective whose prominent members (to me) are éric la casa, ken vandermark, adam sonderberg (civil war) and wolfgang fuchs. steven's also involved in haptic with joseph clayton mills (dropp ensemble) and sonderberg. out of everyone's splinter-groups, i liked this one the most. i also love the fact that they have bloodyminded as one of their top friends on myspace. there's also on with french musician sylvain chauveau. sole new yorker joshua convey doesn't appear to have a whole lot out there, aside from a solo disc, vacant integument, released this year on utech, which sounds really good from what i've heard. the last member, stephen fiehn, has a few things going on: work (a duo with hess) as well as the experimental performance theatre duo cupola bobber, with tyler myers.
fessenden aren't breaking any new ground on their debut studio album of ambient experimental electronic music, but they are showing a nice knack for making it. besides, i've always favored execution over originality, but that's a whole other discussion in itself. i think that the only problem with music like this is that it's conducive to beats. ambient electronic is only a hop, skip and a jump from becoming "techno" (or idm, depending on how asinine you are)... well, maybe it's more like just a hop. for the most part this trio will hold back, but they do have a percussionist amongst their ranks, so it's not completely devoid of rhythm, but like i said, it's held in check, for the most part.

much like the title might lead you to think, not sleeping, just resting, gets the disc underway in a minimal fashion. the base is a deep, lulling, pulsating tone which will turn into a dronier soundscape. buried underneath that is a brief rhythmic loop that'll eventually make it's way to the front, as it continually echoes out of range. the combination of both of those elements creates a brooding vibe. additionally, i like the barely audible sample (sounds like a child, maybe, but not annoying) and the last minute of just resting features nice sustained tone work which will fade in and out of the mix.

the ten minute long mid-swing is fessenden's one real foray into rhythmic electronic music, and i actually don't mind it. i'm thankful that the big 808 bass sound is mixed way down, creating a much milder thump than it's surely capable of. in addition to that are skittery sounds that are more akin to ambient techno. it might sound a little sketchy at this point, but it's just starting to become more layered. there's minimal noises in the background along with a much needed (or, at the very least, welcomed) layer of drone, which serves well to take my focus away from the repetitious elements.
so, up to this point, the music has been in a colder, inorganic, vein. that's neither good, nor bad, but it warms up significantly with diode. it'll start out with some fractured synthetic beats, which aren't rhythmic, but are just there, resounding wobbly. the focus is more so on the multiple layers of warm and inviting tone play along with the high-pitched foreground drone. after a few minutes, the beats die off as organic percussion (light cymbal hits and wooden knocks) kindly take its place. then, we get added instrumentation from the guitar, as we're basically left with multiple guitar layers, steven's percussion and unobtrusive atmospheric noise. it's very pleasant.

a walk in the park reverts back to a moody atmosphere but retains the percussion, though, in this instance it's more minimal; infringing on airy jazz percussion, but never fully following through. actually, everything about a walk in the park is more minimal. two of the electronic layers are stuttery; the differing tones and depths bring about a fine texture. beyond that, there's an innocuous drone which will cut in and out and a sort of scraping noise. when taken apart from the whole, none of these individual sounds would appear to do a whole lot, but when you have layer after layer of them, it all comes together nicely.

the first two minutes of the closing track, peakv-z*sin greets us with two minutes of absolute silence, then jars us out of our confusion with a flash storm of dense distortion and basslike rumbles. i think that i'm also hearing dripping water, so the storm metaphor is actually appropriate. the trio won't do much to take away from their foundation and spend the remaining six minutes with multiple layers of high pitched sustained tones and drones. they'll meticulously tweak those sounds to prevent it from being monotonous, especially good was the work put in towards the ends of the track.

in my head, before i listened to this, i was placing a lot of weight on the connection with kranky. being pretty familiar with kranky's older output and knowing the type of electronic music that they put out, i was under the false impression that this would be an album's worth of stuff that sounded like the more accessible diode. not that that would have been a horrible thing, but i was impressed with fessenden's experimental ambitions. the bulk of their success with this release is due to their texturing and subtle, but very effective, use of drone.

Not Sleeping, Just Resting