SOLOS FOR____ SPACES
Regan Bowering
BEZIRK TAPES
DECEMBER 2023
***LISTEN HERE***
Reviews
“Solos for _ _ _ _ spaces is a play of contrasts, contradicting voluminous expressions with confined phrases, taming resounding feedback with faint percussive flutters, but one that feels driven by the desire to craft electrifying drama – a sensation as unsettling as the idea of recursion – rather than pure autotelic dissonance.”
Antonio Poscic, The Quietus, December 14th, 2023
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“On her first release, percussionist Regan Bowering creates a wide range of tones and mood with a snare drum. She does more than just play the instrument, placing mics and amps around it in ways that generate feedback and create motion-filled soundscapes. During “Grain,” drum rattles morph into a heavy, guitar-like drone. On “Hold,” her drumming slowly recedes into near-silence, then returns as grinding noise. Two of these tracks were recorded live and one in a studio, but the final track is a hybrid in which Bowering reworks the preceding pieces into something new, showing the endless potential contained in her musical approach.”
Marc Masters, Bandcamp, Best Experimental Music of January 2024
“Feedback and resonance run through the release, but the improvisational process behind the electroacoustic system means it never becomes a drone. Everything sounds shifty and alive, barely able to settle down before turning into something else, and it’s this inconsistency that makes the tape’s intricate sonic narratives so captivatingly rich.”
Thomas Burke, WE JAZZ MAGAZINE, April 2024 (print)
“I like it: a troubled negotiation between controlled and out-of-control feedback, escaping from combinations of snare drum, amplifiers and microphones. The gritted textures of 'Grain' loosen into pure feedback tones that sound like saxophones – tip!“
Jennifer Lucy Allen, The Quietus March 2024
“I find myself getting lost in the transient silhouettes of Solos for _ _ _ _ spaces, a textural and dramatic opus. Feedback coalesces around snare drum strikes and scratches without finding a rhythmic core, but instead stretching small tonal gestures into exploratory expanses. Sounds become desolate remnants of aging monoliths. A static hum emerges from the ether to grind its way through sonic whisps like an ever-present reminder of the creeping decay. Bowering shows restraint in each purposeful movement, carving out valleys for these black-eyed tonescapes to hide within and creep forward beyond confined space. Stellar.”
Foxy Digitalis, January 2024