Marsfield
The Towering Sky
Faraway Press CD

Available through the Helen Scarsdale Agency: $20.00

The collaborative work between Andrew Chalk, Vikki Jackman, Robin Barnes, and Brendan Walls, Marsfield follows some tried and true methods that Chalk has been employing ever since his days working with David Jackman in Organum: that of the tactile drone. In fact, much of these sounds resemble the aggregate sounds that Chalk and Barnes collected together during their first Isolde disc. Acoustic drones with origins in resonant metals (bowed cymbals, perhaps? singing bowls, quite possibily) are transmitted within a huge warehouse like space. The titles to both tracks on this album are the Marsfield Cathedral and the Marsfield Commons, neither of which allude to anything specific to us; but do give us thought as to what Marsfield (the group) may be intending: that of the hallowed sound built out of distressed materials. Quite hallowed, indeed.