SEEK

SEEK
Morte aux Vaches
Staalplaat 1999


Already from the first sonic emissions it's clear that you find yourself confronted with a classic, a sensation not unknown to this writer when talking about John Duncan. The sound of SEEK is visceral, subliminal, studied; going past the limits of the known, and of the expectations of listeners who look for music with sound organized according to a pre-defined architecture, yet is always surprising. John is the master of frequencies and vibrations at the limits of the audible; he inundates the brain with a lava of indefinably beautiful color -- the audio spectrum gets turned inside out and disintegrated. A simple project becomes an unforgettable masterwork -- because in this case you're dealing with masterwork. The Mort aux vaches series is nearly always touched with grace; with every release -- at least in the last two or three years -- the series has produced CD's worth noting. With SEEK this important collection adds a pearl of inestimable importance and brilliance. Follow it wherever it goes: John Duncan will arrive there almost always ahead of the others. And... put it on headphones.

--Massimo Ricci, DEEP LISTENINGS, Winter 1999




...Speaking of Staalplaat, in the Mort aux vaches radio series comes SEEK by John Duncan, American composer who's been living for awhile in Italy, well known in more radical experimental electro-noise circles: shortwave, computer and ambient sounds are the sources for five elusive drones, between freezing conceptualism and dramatic Ligeti noise crescendo.

--Vittore Baroni, RUMORE, March 1999