U56 | brb>voicecoil | reclaim
reclaim pt1_excerpt
reclaim pt2_excerpt
format : Glass mastered CD ltd to 200 hand numbered copies
Regular edition of 150 copies packaged in clear vinyl sleeve with folded insert with an additional art card on 350gr matt laminated paper.
Special ultra ltd edition of 50 copies packaged in black mass-tinted 400gr cardboard digisleeve with frame. it holds a set of 2 double-sided art cards with a different artwork from the regular edition on 350gr matt coated laminated paper + a unique (none the same) additional treated inkjet numbered print on 178 gr Epson paper.
Digisleeve comes in a resealable cello.
release year : 2019
length : 52’17
tracks :
1. reclaim pt1
2. reclaim pt2
3. reclaim pt3
status : still available !
>>> order via Paypal : chalkdc@unfathomless.net
Regular edition
(Belgium) : 14 € (inc.postage)
(Europe) : 15 € (inc.postage)
(World) : 16 € (inc.postage)
Special ultra ltd edition
(Belgium) : 17 € (inc.postage)
(Europe) : 18 € (inc.postage)
(World) : 19 € (inc.postage)
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: info :
We continue to expand our urban environments without thought for consequence. Cities expand and consume green belt, while all the time the center rots away as inner cities decay.
Location One – 10 years ago I walked through crops, wildlife, fragile footbridges and small brooks. Today the space is occupied by sprawling residential estates, roads, pylons, business parks. These places have taken away a natural space forever? No. These environments are temporary residence, history demonstrates that nature has the ability to reclaim its space and return structure to dust.
Location Two – Abandoned farm buildings are currently being dismantled brick by brick by no mechanical means but by nature alone, slowly being dragged back to ground to be consumed by the power of the natural environment.
(Kevin Wilkinson, 31 January 2019)
: reviews :
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Here is the first of two latest editions from the always rightly curated Brussels-based Unfathomless, focused on phonographies, field recordings and other microsounds — both available on CD (limited + special editions) and downloadable via Bandcamp.
Reclaim is broken into three parts. brb>voicecoil (Kevin Wilkinson) collected his organic source material throughout the seasons in various places including: Green belt destruction sites for new developments – Great Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and derelict Farm Buildings – Melmerby, North Yorkshire, UK. The result is quite minimal, scratchy, lush, and completely atmospheric. Rain is so easily seductive in its nonchalant uneven, percussive patterns. It sounds as though Wilkinson was going for the most micro approach possible as his subject is likely only within a square foot or less, though so much happens even within the most intimate of spaces.
The low-grade rattling upon a tin structure, along with the gulley-like gurgle is nicely opposed and crescendos just before being reduced to a much lighter pitter patter and gentle creaking. In between all the natural sounds arises some strange fusion that only comes from mostly untraveled spaces. It’s as though he’s come upon an unknown species in mid slumber, making odd (alien) breathing noises – of course this is likely from the layering of unique textural patterns atop one another. I so appreciate his truism: “history demonstrates that nature has the ability to re-claim its space and return structure to dust“.
This recording is about the nature of nature, its innate power and how it takes volatile man-made structures back to its core. In this way its a tale on impermanence. The cadences here are gentle and raw, mimicking the balance between the elements. One of the best things about this record-ing, as opposed to countless other examples within the genre of typical field recordings, is that nothing is as it seems, it diverts your attention with pleasing, peculiar distractions. Also, it is far less reliant on the exclusivity of nature itself, and brings the body into the picture to bare witness to the course of evolution.
a provocative and distinctly unique new take on our ephemeral environment.
TJ Norris
Toneshift
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reclaim brings to mind two classic pop songs: Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” (1970) and Talking Heads’ “Nothing But Flowers” (1988). In the first, “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” In the second, “this used to be real estate, now it’s only fields and trees.” Nature has a way of reclaiming her own, which is the point of the new album by Kevin Wilkinson, who goes by the unwieldy moniker of brb>voicecoil.
In Wilkinson’s words, “10 years ago I walked through crops, wildlife, fragile footbridges and small brooks. Today the space is occupied by sprawling residential estates, roads, pylons, business parks.” He still finds beauty in the ecological soundscape. “Over here,” a man calls in the opening moments. Treasures yet remain: natural wonders, crevasses and streams. I understand how Wilkinson feels, having returned to the park by my childhood home only to find buildings at every border. The park was still a park, but one could no longer get lost in it.
As the downpour arrives in part one, a strange spell is cast. Nature descends on metal and brick, creating echoes. There is no escape from the touch of the clouds. Wildlife pokes through the corners, scrambling for sonic purchase. The timbres seem electro-acoustic, their huffs and beeps intermingled, creating a haunted impression. But by the end, the natural soundscape is nearly silenced, replacing by hydraulic expressions. A lone bird visits, tweets, and disappears, likely relocating to a friendlier site.
The center track is filled with scrapes and taps, like a person rustling through wreckage, or even worse, the wind blowing debris and reverberating against signs. There’s no warmth to the piece; it’s as arid as cement. A new sound, like the jangling of a hundred pockets of change, visits mid-track, more product than creature. Traffic passes. No one stops. Is it nothing to you, all who pass by?
But the third piece offers some hope. Wilkinson writes, “Abandoned farm buildings are currently being dismantled brick by brick by no mechanical means but by nature alone.” There is solace in this slow, inevitable recline, eloquently described by Alan Weisman in The World Without Us. As long as we’re here, we’ll continue to do damage; but should we fail to blow up the planet, we’ll disappear and she’ll keep returning, like the birds in Part 3, filling the trees with their triumphant song. .
Richard Allen
A Closer Listen
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The latest release from electro-acoustic and experimental sound artist Kevin Wilkinson, “reclaim” is driven by a socio-political agenda and a potent understanding of time and place. “reclaim” is an exploration of the environmental and sociological impact of urban sprawl and green belt construction that also acknowledges the impermanence of these man-made structures and the relentless, unmatched power of nature.
reclaim’s first track finds Wilkinson moving from unsteady pastoralism and flowing water into claustrophobic industrial terrain that buckles warps itself from clamour to haunting semi-silence. The second two-part section maps out a similar journey in reverse, using and manipulating sound recordings from abandoned farm buildings to suggest dizzying infernos deep churning pits of earth. “reclaim” is a powerful meditation on how we treat nature, and how it might treat us in return.
Mark Corcoran-Lettice
Narc
Unfathomless 