Washington, D.C.-area musician Tristan Welch is dropping a special release for July 3, the day when Bandcamp yet again gives all the profits to the artists. And I urge you to buy this release if you are interested at all in the state of experimental music in this area, and in general. Asset/Defect seems minimalist, but it's also precisely executed, and that seriousness without pretension is why I liked this so much.
"Asset/Defect" builds in waves, from washes of electronic textures, to guitar noise smoothed out into something elegant, and back to a louder sound altogether. The obvious point of comparison is Robert Fripp, but there are moments of this that made me think of Harold Budd, or even Steve Reich. Welch keeps this moving just enough that it doesn't feel like some of the minimalist stuff you might know from past masters, and the repetition here is in pursuit of a mood more than in the service of creating a groove, ultimately. That is what makes this a distinctive work for me. The second track, "Dropping Guilt", is a bit shorter, and more of one mood throughout. On some level that made me think of the instrumental pieces on The Moon and the Melodies, but it also sounded like something from a Sakamoto soundtrack too.
This is simple music on the surface, but there's a lot going on here, with Tristan Welch employing treatments over the top of the guitar that take moments and stretch them out towards infinity. if the surfaces are smooth, the music is just persistent and quietly unsettling as to keep a listener engaged, and one cannot call this ambient for the wealth of competing ideas at work here. Call it minimalist if you want, but remember how sharp and focused that kind of thing can be when done right, like here.
Asset/Defect is out tomorrow via Bandcamp.
More details on Tristan Welch via the official Facebook page.