colin andrew sheffield
signatures
(ib002) CD

These pieces were composed without the use of a computer, only a turntable, old sampler and a portable 64-track digital workstation. Fragments from these tracks include sounds from birds or water, some being partially obscured while others are veiled references to those elements.

all compositions by colin andrew sheffield
photos by tarrl morley
sleeve design by diane granahan

Track list:

1. beneath the waves

2. arise

3. surrender

4. breath of day

Just as Matmos makes it easy to write about their high concept hi-jinks, there's plenty of preamble when it comes to this album from Colin Sheffield. This artist works reductively with appropriated material, and this is a label that is dedicated to works evoking avian life and their environment. Signatures presents an opaque set of recordings through that conceptual lens in these four monochromatic tracks of suspended drone and din. The flattened layers of the first three tracks have the gravity of thick grey concrete, occasionally arcing into curved surfaces and bulging masses. While it's hard to categorise any of these sounds as birdlike, they are impressively physical renderings of a minimalist ethos. The album's finale "breath of day" is considerably lighter, with a sustained tone burst that resembles the church organs from Touch's Spire series. Sheffield directs us toward heaven: and in casting our eyes upward, there's the chance we might spot a rare bird soaring in the sunlight.
- Jim Haynes, The Wire

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