Joe Frawley - Reviews

Emperor of Daffodils | Ritual Research | A Book of Dreams | The Hypnotist | Tangerine | Wilhelmina's Dream

Heathen Harvest (Feb. 1, 2010)
http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20100129060117107
Emperor of Daffodils is “a sonic essay on narcissism and the idolatry of beauty” according to Joe Frawley’s statement; an exploration of the bizarre world of teenager internet cosmetic vanity, threading into the murky worlds of Mr Frawley’s imagination. This strange adventure into “feminine beauty rituals” certainly has to be one of the most unusual and original concept album ideas I have encountered.

For this release Frawley recruited Rachel Rambach’s emotive vocals and Greg Conte’s atmospheric guitar work, with the other elements of the tracks (piano, sweeping synths, electronic devices, and haunting samples) provided by Frawley himself. Emperor of Daffodils is a little like a hypnotic hall of mirrors. The use of samples from teenage You Tube “me putting on my makeup” clips is nothing short of haunting. By looping these fragments of monologue and weaving them through almost treacly feel-good synth, Frawley has managed to create a sound painting that is decidedly unsettling.

The empty image-obsession that is part and parcel of the last few decades of many teenage girls’ socialised identity peels apart under the sonic scalpels this release wields, the pensive piano strains and washed out vocals laying open a deeply sinister vein in the worlds of young women’s self-objectification. It is ambiguous as to whether Frawley approves or disapproves of this strange universe of “Girlstuff” – lipstick and eye liner and mirrors. One wonders whether he doesn’t somehow get off on these strange internet displays of vanity; the mood of this album is almost such that it could be the soundtrack for underage porn, or a the least a sleazy voyeuristic expose.

I guess Frawley has succeeded in drawing us into the potentially grotesque world of girls and teenagers winding into sexual identities that they are not truly grown enough to wear. He forces us to look at them with the eye of the lecherous and manipulative older man somehow, and it is an unpleasant identity to be coaxed into wearing. Frawley has really touched a nerve with this release, in short. One could interpret it as a fascinating feminist critique of female superficiality; or interpret it as a seedy and distasteful exercise in the patriarchal abuse of the gaze. And mixed into all of that, too, is a genuine respect and affection for this world of practices and ideals.

Frawley doesn’t give anything away, and the result leaves one tempted to withdraw into self-righteous condemnation of Frawley’s raw exploration, or else into deeper questions about identity, gender, and power. In a way this release is as much as essay as it is a body of music, and the depth of Frawley’s ability to realise his concept in sound also somewhat hems him in. It is the very precision of his evocation that also weakens the album – as a whole it is so aggressively specific in its mood and aspect, and so unsettling, that it is hard to appreciate in the same way as most other music. This is not necessarily a criticism of the album, but it does mean that it might struggle to appeal to many folk because of its very uniqueness. Ultimately as a reviewer I cannot really relate to the motivation to create a whole musical release around a concept like this, and in a way I find the experience of this music somewhat repellent in its evocation of the implicit violence of the male gaze that seems almost inevitably bound up in the superficial extremes of teenage female vanity. However one has to give full respect to Frawley and his collaborators for really nailing the idea perfectly, for drawing the listener so fully into this simultaneously mundane and disturbing landscape. This is definitely a release that could teach other composers a thing or two about their craft.

Leonard's Lair (June 7, 2009)
http://leonardslair.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/review-joe-frawley-ensemble-emperor-of-daffodils/
As concept albums go Emperor Of Daffodils, would be one of the oddest. Based around the theme of female make-up rituals, ambient/classical composer Joe Frawley could have set himself up for a mighty fall here. As it is, it's a more cohesive follow-up to the sporadically inspiring A Book Of Dreams. Once again Frawley melds vocal samples with ambient music. "Crush Material" and "Masque" revolve around haunting piano motifs with words appearing from one speaker to another. Understandably, this creates a disorientating atmosphere. "Lipstick" raises the ante with its classical swell and a lush melody but "The Supplicant" – all disembodied girls voices and violent strings – returns to the dark undertones of the album. The title track employs Frawley's commonly favoured tools of rainfall and breathy harmonies and "Narcisse" brings the experience to a quiet, mildly disturbing conclusion. Listening to Emperor Of Daffodils is certainly evocative and Frawley gives the impression of someone who is fascinated by, but disapproving of, preening ladies. Within these compositions are fragments of beauty but they're sullied by an undercurrent of evil; turning this short album into a vanity project that's actually worth hearing.

Vital Weekly (No. 681, June 2009)
http://www.vitalweekly.net/681.html
One of the more interesting people I came across with in recent years is Joe Frawley, who released a bunch of really good CDRs of his version of plunderphonics, radio collage and musique concrete. Now he has an "ensemble" which is himself on piano, found sounds and electronics, and by electronic mail delivery Greg Conte on guitars and Rachel Rambach on voice. A daffodil in French is a narcisse, named after the mythic figure in love with himself. Apparently on the internet there a videos of young woman doing her make-up and looking at herself and these fascinating videos (more than a dozen actually) lead to this work for the ensemble, his most "programmatic" until now (as opposed to "absolute"). A sort of a small opera piece, in which the beautiful voice of Rachel Rambach sings the word "Lipstick" in the track of the same name over and over again. She sighs, signs, speaks, while the guitar and piano provide a dreamlike soundtrack, added with extra layers of spacious electronics. This dwells less on the musique concrete part of his previous work (despite the sound of a photo camera in "Masque" for instance), but rather seems to be working towards a finished song structure. This break with the past is quite nice (but not yet necessary, as I thought Frawley hadn't explored his full possibilities in that respect), and the expansion shows he can do so much more. This is another great work by Frawley, dream pop like. I didn't think it was possible. (FdW)

thesoundprojector.com (Recent Arrivals, June 10, 2009)
http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2009/06/10/lipstick-trace/
From the Connecticut composer Joe Frawley we have his new work Emperor Of Daffodils (JFMCD06), a release which (as he points out) is conspicuously more collaborative than his previous solo works. Rachel Rambach contributes voice, Greg Conte guitar and bass, and Frawley plays piano and electronics alongside his usual array of carefully-selected and edited found sounds. (We should also note that the players never actually met up to make the recordings, and all was done “virtually” by email and swapping sound files in the post.) Frawley's samples are apparently taken from a series of found videos on YouTube depicting a woman putting on her makeup and providing a live commentary on her actions. Where previous Frawley works have been extremely open-ended and ambiguous narratives, this one is more directed and conceptual, underscoring speculative ideas about narcissism (and something about the exclusion of males from female rituals). While sceptical UK listeners may think they're in for nothing more than an arthouse version of the X-Ray Spex classic "Identity" post-punk anthem, there is a lot more going on under the surface; the third track, for example, simply repeats treated utterances of the word "Lipstick" to layers of very romantic music, and it offers everything Frawley does best; utterly simple, yet apparently impossible to fathom in its opaque mystery. Also it's very beautiful to listen to. You probably won't find this gem in the shops, so best to order direct from the composer.

Audio Stylites (September 2009)
http://audiostylites.com/2009/01/joe-frawley-ritual-research/
Mystery is sublime. It won't hit you in the face but will rather sneak up on you while working at the cubicle and make you exclaim in surprise at the depth of the universe gaping at you from out of your headphones. Joe Frawley's Ritual Research is such a release. The composer and musician makes an audio quilt from his piano, various vocal and music samples, repeating pizzicato string motifs, and lots of effects (primarily reverb and delay). The tracks are both ambient and textural sound art. Even in its abstraction, there is some form of melody. Even in its lack of direction, there is a point that the artist is giving us.

Taken in its entirety, Ritual Research is a unified release that must be listened to as one unit, because it is made up of the same elements and adds up to only one message anyway: that there are worlds beyond your reach, often attainable only through art. This is one research output that has definitely produced noteworthy results.

Music, Musings and Miscellany
http://dezji.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/
Pianist Joe Frawley's Ritual Research is a real oddity. It starts off with a lovely, but pretty conventional piano piece (the title track), but from then on in is a collage of looped voice samples, hymns, choirs and all manner of other effects. It has a strange impact on the listener, where the focus is drawn to different elements on each listen. The whole is far from a cacophony, with plenty of passages of grace and beauty, but is quite difficult to take in. It's weird how certain voices and phrases stay with you long after the music has finished. Ritual Research is an interesting and rewarding project that is probably less of an intellectual challenge than I make it sound.

Heathen Harvest (May 1, 2009 )
http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20090418172223358
Joe Frawley is one of the more unique and educated individuals to enter the world of experimental music in some time. In addition to the Universities of Connecticut and Exeter (UK), Joe has also attended Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music. His goal is to combine personal contemporary piano compositions with fields recordings and vocal samples. Unlike most field recordings artists, Joe's music falls far closer to the world of acoustic ambient music than the musique concrete / noise world. Some could even call this music dream-like enough to have qualities of the shoegaze world within it, but as far as music genre definitions go, it strays far into the ambient territory.

Frawley's take on acoustic ambient music is highly scientific. His focus is towards the human subconscious and utilizing these voice samples and changing their context to affect what is going on in the listener's brain and mood. The music paired to them is the less important part it seems, merely being a suggestive influence to lean the listener's mood into a certain territory. These underlying scientific musical textures pair up with the vocal anomalies to create somewhat of a storyline, which the aritst himself admittedly tries to stray from. The resulting music tends to come out largely relaxed, a conscious dreamstate that is actually somewhat uncomfortable at first to fall into. Frawley's music isn't an easy descent. What ends up happening is the insertion of what feels like false memories. You relax, allow the music to take hold of your imagination, and rather than being led softly through a world of intimate textures and soft lulls, you are led astray. You weaken yourself to that state of thought and end up contemplating the phrases that come out of the music. You hear an interesting word here or there, and it completely changes the thought pattern that is currently racing through your mind. Of course, that's largely the part of taking voice samples and recontextualizing them, but the journey somehow ends up being rough in a very minimal way of thinking. But that was only my personal journey through A Book of Dreams.

If you simply allow your brain to connect with the music without trying to understand the words or contemplate the current meaning of the song, you can easily get lost in a world of harmony and beauty. You can float along the edges of your world and allow the words to plug themselves into your own personal conscience and what results will be infinitely varying for every listener. The album's title is A Book of Dreams for a reason. There isn't simply one story within the aural walls of this release. In fact, everyone's story is included here. All of the samples here will affect every listener in a different way, regardless of the suggestive nature of the piano melodies underneath. Your journey will not be the same as another's, and so this giant tome of subconscious thought is truly a gift to music lovers all across the world of ambient.

Leonard's Lair (December 20, 2008)
http://leonardslair.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/review-joe-frawley-a-book-of-dreams/
For his first release, Connecticut's Joe Frawley has crafted an ambitious album forged on the combination of piano music and found sounds. The end product is a sometimes beguiling, sometimes disorientating record that is certainly to be admired from an artistic point of view.

As a typical example of the listening experience, the pitter-patter of piano raindrops are heard on "The Hypnotist" and then layers of sound samples (a woman's laughter, an older man's spiritual awakening and the distant sounds of nature) merge to create a piece of music that is as mesmeric as its title suggests. Furthermore, the usage of field recordings for "The White Gloves" are certainly in keeping with the title of the album.

At other times I thought I was being subjected to a relaxation tape (”Breathe in, breathe out”). As the chief culprit, the five-part "Tangerine" suite contains a few moments of beautiful, elegiac melody from Frawley but struggles to sustain its importance for the whole of its sixteen minute duration.

There are definite parallels to be drawn with The Orb ("The City (Map 2)" is Frawley's "Little Fluffy Clouds") but here the ideas are set to classical rather than ambient music. Although there are moments when I thought I was listening as a means of meditation, "A Book Of Dreams" frequently evoked visions and images of childrens" fantasy stories, the psychiatrist's couch and haunted locations.

Other testimonials

I absolutely love A Book of Dreams. The music is pure aural delight, and so unique as to defy classification. Even the few artists I could think of as reference points seem so far afield of what you are doing; I really think you are charting new--and beautiful--territory. Which I'd imagine is a very exciting place to be!
--Daniel Waters, author of Generation Dead (Hyperion Teen)

In this haunting successor to his Wilhelmina's Dream, combining two EPs into one seamless work, Joe Frawley gives us more of his exceptional mastery of the sound collage as music. But it's not merely more of the same, although that would be impressive in itself -- no, there's an even more delicate, nuanced touch to this new work, which is more lyrical & shimmering than his previous work. Words & wordless voices call, echo, linger in a dreamily distorted haze; carefully chosen samples intertwine with original music, lonely yet warm. Contemplative melodies ... the piano notes hang in the air like snowflakes, like cold drops of rain, like summer twilight made tangible in pure glass beads. Again, ghostly images are evoked, images that hover just out of complete clarity, punctuated by a precisely spoken word. Not for everyone, certainly -- but far more accessible than the dubious might think. It makes me eager & impatient for his next collection. Most highly recommended!
--William Timothy Lukeman

Furthernoise September 2008
www.furthernoise.org/index.php?iss=69
Joe Frawley's latest release, The Hypnotist, melds pretty, melodic musical fragments and found sounds into a discomforting, meandering narrative through the subconscious.

Breathe in, breathe out …

This short collection of six tracks (plus a bonus remix of Frawley's earlier work "Wilhelmina's Dream") takes the listener on a slightly disturbing sonic journey. The work twists and turns in on itself, a tangle of internal and external references, circling in search of some buried "truth". [...] The title track, "The Hypnotist", is slightly sinister:

you're a beautiful girl, Maria …you lie down, face down in the grass, and you want to kiss him …

There's a girl breathing heavily. Or is she sobbing? Frawley is careful not to fill in all the gaps in the story. Like his mysterious hypnotist, he plays with the power of suggestion, layering fragments of speech and story on top of a recurring piano phrase. Meanwhile the voices break through the melodic surface, but no real "character" emerges, and I'm unsure who is being hypnotised. Is it me?

Fade … deep … white … wet … day … death …

Technically adept, Frawley blurs traditional distinctions between music and found sounds. The keyboard fragments are as interesting for their timbre as for their melodies, while the composer's use of found sounds, particularly the melodic contours of speech, gives a heightened awareness of their musical qualities. With the constant refrain of tinkling piano, there's more than a hint of music box in here, but I"ve never heard such delicate melodies sound quite so eerie.

Breathe in … breathe out …      Review by Stacey Sewell

Dream Scenes (blog) (March 31, 2008)
http://www.vancooten.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=163
Not exactly “ambient”, but definitely “Cinema for the Ear” as the composer himself calls it. And indeed: the carefully orchestrated samples and sound fragments seem to tell a story without images. A beautiful tension is created in a dialogue between the electronic soundscape and the piano improvisations. As Connecticut-born composer Joe Frawley (b. 1971) states: “The 'film' is an abstract construction, designed to stimulate the imagination by way of suggestion, rather than clearly outlining characters, plot, etc. “ If the music and the title (The Hypnotist) does not help you create your own mental imagery, Joe is offering you his own interpretation in the notes on his website. The Hypnotist is a 30+ minute CD , and makes you wish it was longer than that. It's the third part in a series that began with Wilhelmina's Dream in 2006, followed by Tangerine in 2007. Well worth checking out!

hear/think (January 26, 2008)
http://www.hearthink.com/2008/03/21/joe-frawley-the-hypnotist/
Практически каждый альбом Joe Frawley хочется назвать гипнотическим и, как минимум, завораживающим. Его музыка обладает удивительной завораживающей атмосферой. Словно видишь сны наяву, мистические, страшные, невероятно замороченные, но дико красивые и глубоко впечатляющие. Странно, что Джо до сих пор не подписан на лейбл, его мастерству и качеству каждой работы очень сложно не удивиться. Определение его музыки - plunderphonics. Я не знаю, есть ли в русском языке аналог этому слову, но оно означает звуковой коллаж, собранный из кусочков различных музыкальных композиций. На предыдущих альбомах Frawley можно было заметить Малера и Прокофьева, перемешанных с его собственным фортепиано. Что он использовал в Hypnotist сказать трудно, ровно так же как и понять, где он насобирал такое огромное количество обрывков фраз и звуковых записей. Постоянно кружащие, словно в вашей голове, голоса, внезапный шепот, смех и таинственные мелодии создают удивительную магическую обстановку. Слушать исключительно ночью.

[Rough translation from the Russian text]: Between awakening and the sleep. Practically each album by Joe Frawley could be called hypnotic and, each one casts a spell. Its music contains surprising sounds, casting a magical atmosphere. As if you dream in reality, mystical, terrible, improbably zamorochennye, but are wild beautiful and which deeply impress. It is strange that Joe, until now, is not signed to a label, as to its craftsmanship and to the quality of each work it is very difficult not to astonish. The best classification of this music may be plunderphonics. I do not know if there is in the Russian language an analog to this word, but it indicates the sound of collage, assembled from the pieces of different musical compositions. On the previous albums by Frawley it was possible to note Ravel and Prokofiev, mixed with his own fortepiano. What he used into The Hypnotist is difficult to say, exactly just as to understand, where it nasobiral this enormous quantity of scraps of phrases and sonic records. Constantly kruzhashchiye, as if in your head, voices, sudden whisper, laughter and mysterious melodies create surprising magic situation. To listen to especially at night.

Wonderful Wooden Reasons (April, 2008)
http://wonderfulwoodenreasons.homestead.com/reviewsDtoF.html
Frawley's The Hypnotist is the third in an ongoing series of piano and samples collages that are, in his words, 'exploring interior worlds of dream and memory'. Having not heard the previous two I cannot really comment on the cohesiveness of the over-arching concept he outlines in the press notes but what I can comment on is the breathtaking quality of the music. Frawley's piano underlies everything here with a series of gently unfurling loops of melody. Intertwined with this is a simply bewildering array of immaculately placed sound effects and voice samples. It is these disembodied voices that take the lead throughout, pulling and guiding us through the twisted and tortuous dream logic inherent in the compositions. An eerie and utterly compulsive listen that is wholeheartedly recommended.

Vital Weekly (No. 609 - February, 2008)
http://www.vitalweekly.net/609.html
The third release by Joe Frawley, following Tangerine (Vital Weekly 579) and Wilhelmina's Dream (Vital Weekly 564), which both were highly appreciated in these pages. Frawley is a piano player, which comes more to light on this release I think than on his previous two releases. There are more differences to be spotted, for instance the fact that we are dealing with a story throughout the whole release: 'the central is between a visitor to an unfamiliar city and a therapist exploring the mind of a patient through hypnotic techniques'. To his end, Frawley uses various conversations, dialogues and speeches from various speakers and various situations that he stole, or perhaps speaks himself, well some of it. The piano music not unlike Ravel, Debussy, Satie or more recent Harold Budd. Very cleverly he mixes in some field recordings and classical music lifted from other sources. I have no idea why there is a 2008 remix of 'Wilhelmina's Dream', since it's recorded in 2007, and even when it's not a strange thing on this release it seems, conceptually at least a bit out of place. Otherwise I think this is another great release by Frawley, a great combination of melancholic piano music, field recording, spoken word and plunderphonic.
--Frans de Waard

thesoundprojector.com (Recent Arrivals, March 7, 2007)
http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2007/03/07/tangerines-and-eagle-keys/
Tangerine is a new miniature from Joe Frawley. 16 and one-half minutes of piano music and sound collage from this Connecticut-based fellow. His previous one [Wilhelmina's Dream] was most evocative in an oneiric way, so I'm sure this one will press similar nerve-centres. Unlike a lot of modernist composers who have gone out of their way to deny (or even destroy) narrative elements, Frawley embraces story-telling with a passion. Track titles like "Death by water" and "The House was Full of Books", plus a Herman Melville quote on the back cover, confirm his literary resonances. He's also a fan of old sepia-tinted photographs, and although there's nothing deeply macabre about his work, it could be situated on the fringes of turf occupied by Joel Peter Witkin or The Brothers Quay. --Ed Pinsent

The Sound Projector, print magazine (16th Issue, 2007-2008)
This man's a very ingenious narrative sound-art construct maker, who plays the piano like a minimalist version of Florian Fricke, and has the skill of a cabinet maker when he wields the tape-splicer. He works hard to compress a lot of information into his miniaturist, story-based poetical works. Tangerine is only 16 minutes long, but it's a perfect realisation of his suggestive theme. It's made up of piano music and 'sound collage', but unlike so many cut-up zanies whose single aim is to regurgitate the outpourings of the TV and radio media to no real effect, Frawley selects only small choice snippets of pre-recorded information to state his idea. Like I say he's a storyteller, but the narrative unfolds in a very oblique way. There are a lot of words here: voices of people reading stories, found voice, unfinished sentences, selected couplets from old songs; and sound effects like telephones ringing, footsteps in corridors, Morse code messages, numbers stations, foreign languages, trains pulling away, rowing boats ... all sorts of radio-play dramatic suggestiveness that really allows your imagination to take wing with gossamer feathers. Plus we've got very literary references scattered everywhere - 'The house was full of books' is the title of Part IV, 'Death by water' recalls T.S. Eliot, and there's a Herman Melville quote on the back cover about the difference between sanity and insanity. And the front cover image admits to almost everything up front, an arty assemblage using faded old photographs, news cuttings. and images of insects. All of these subtle clues are bound together by the very romantic, quiet and soothing piano playing of Frawley, making this a very moving, intriguing construct. You'll be riveted as you listen, decoding the half-suggested story of Tangerine, and anxiously awaiting the outcome. From what I can gather, it's a tragic tale, and the record is steeped in poignant melancholy. Gorgeous. --Ed Pinsent

Vital Weekly (No. 579 - June, 2007)
http://www.vitalweekly.net/579.html
A while ago I was introduced to the work of Joe Frawley (see Vital Weekly 564) through Wilhelmina's Dream, an excellent work of quiet plunderphonics. Tangerine sees a continuation of this type of work through three pieces. One striking thing is the use of voice and piano being more present and the orchestral samples are pushed to background. There is also a little bit of electronic sounds, but these too are kept to a minimum. I have no idea where Frawley gets his voices, or did I too hard understanding what they are talking, even whispering about. Perhaps they don't tell me a story at all? I rather think they are evoking images and atmospheres, like being not fully awake and yet not really asleep either. The piano softly tinkles away, a bit of reverb adds a haunting, spooky atmosphere. Debussy meets electronics and a cilinder wax recording with some old conversations. More Mood music of a highly original kind, as before. Someone should investigate this guy and offer him a CD contract. --Frans de Waard

Terrascope Online (Rumbles, June 2007)
www.terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Rumbles_June07.htm
“Tangerine” the latest album from Joe Frawley is a haunting soundscape created with samples, field recordings and piano. Sounding like a slightly more classical version of The Orb, the music comes from that place between waking and sleep, snatches of speech only adding to the barely glimpsed mystery, the sounds beautifully mixed for maximum impact. Throughout, the piano is delicately poised, a soft rain of notes that are filled with emotion and blessed with gentle grace.

The Cookshop (blog) (Saturday, August 18, 2007)
the-cookshop.blogspot.com/2007/08/joe-frawley-tangerine-self- released.html
It's that time again we had a "record of the week"... Despite all shitty odds and intense competition, Joe Frawley - whom most likely you've not heard of before today - pulls it off with a mini-LP of music, words & everyday noises... Noone would know what to begin with, 'cause it has so many tasty sonic flavours in it, in so many different instances. There is nada boring in here. Period. Lots of work that went inside, but what's invigorating is how effortlessly it actually expands and drifts by. "The story of the evaporability of time", if you will. Phantom memories. A sense of bemused wonderment that washes over each track. Like someone taking all the pretty, simple things in life and rearranging them into a 28min gorgeous plunderphonic sound collage. Cinema for the ears, my frenz. Let's have more of this...

New Music Server, Czech Republic (Aug. 28, 2007)
http://www.newmusic.cz/?page=recenze_archiv&sortby=date&year=2007
&month=8&recenzeid=604
   Joe Frawley vyrůstal na garážovém rocku, ze kterého to dotáhl na Berklee College of Music. Stal se z něho skladatel. Vystudoval ještě další dvě univerzity, jako obory měl fine arts a performance arts. A ke sborovým skladbám a klavírním symfoniím se přidal sound-art. Jakousi syntézou svých dosavadních znalostí si Frawley vytvořil projekt, který nazval The cinema of sound. V jeho rámci vydal album Wilhelmine's dream (2006) i nové Tangerine. Smyslem tohoto projektu je nasbírat co nejvíce samplů, chytře je prokombinovat s vlastními kompozicemi a nechat posluchače "vidět ušima". Na albu člověk uslyší indiánské mrmlání, lidské vzdechy, šplouchání vln, skřeky ptáků. V pozadí pod samply občas chrastí nějaká vážná hudba ze starého gramofonu nebo jsou zvuky prokládány Frawleyovými klavírními improvizacemi. Co má na albu pravděpodobně největší prostor, je lidská řeč. Neustále se na vás budou sypat věty a než se stačíte podivit nad první, unese vás další, s předešlou naprosto nesouvisející.
   A přesně tak může člověk vnímat celé album, jako skrumáž spolu naprosto neslučitelných zvuků, ve kterých se těžko orientuje. Podobně je to ale se surrealistickou básní, nad kterou se ke smyslu nedostane uvažováním. Když ale člověk „vypne“ mozek, může za odměnu dostat docela intenzivní zážitek. A stejně tak když si nasadíte sluchátka a zavřete oči a nahodíte režim polospánku, Tangerine vám v hlavě udělá film, kde s každou sekundou budete vnímat něco jiného. Octnete se uprostřed chrámu, ušima vám projde neznámý člověk, v dálce bude zpívat chorál, chvíli na to budete plout po moři a nějaká žena vám bude vyprávět: "The house was full of books....".
   Tohle album by měli vyzkoušet i jinak zavilí odpůrci podobných experimentů, kteří se často po několika skladbách začnou urputně nudit. Jestli se něco takového člověku stane u Frawleyho, je to apatik bez fantazie a měl by se jít vyšetřit.

[Rough translation of the Czech] Joe Frawley grown on garage rock, then studied on Berklee College of Music, another two universities (fine arts and performing arts) and beside choral songs a piano symphonies started to compose sound-art. Synthesis of his knowledge set up project called "The cinema of sound". Within the frame of The cinema of sound he published album Wilhelmine's dream (2006) and freshly Tangerine. Sense of this project is to collect as much samples as is possible, brightly to combine them with own compositions and let listeners to 'see through ears". On CD is possible to hear Indian murmur, people's whispers, splashing of water, screaming of birds.... In the background underneath the samples sometimes roaring from time to time classical music from old gramophone or sounds are interlaced by Frawley's piano improvisations. What have main expanse on album is human tongue.
    Listener can feel whole album like a scrum of totally incompatible sounds, in which is no easy to orientate oneself, similar like with surreal poem. When listener 'switch off" the brain, he can give strongly musical adventure. The same like when you put headphones on head, close your eyes and starting to fall in trance. Tangerine build a motion picture in your head, where you can feel every second something different. You will place yourself in the centre of temple, unknown man walk through your ears, someone will sing choral in long distance, few seconds you will sail on see and on woman will tell you a story: "The house was full of books....".
    This album should try total dissenters of similar experiments, which started to bore after few songs. If it's happen to them with Frawley's music, you can call them mope without fantasy and sent them forward to doctor.

Terrascope Online. (Rumbles, August 2006)
www.terrascope.co.uk/Reviews/Rumbles_August06.htm
Opening with some haunting solo piano, I was expecting Wilhelmina's Dream to be filled with similar compositions from Joe Frawley, however second track “Invocation Of Pan” proved me wrong, with looped speech samples confusing the senses, the acoustic instruments buried deep in the mix. The title track continues the juxtaposition, gentle melodies and minimalist strings interwoven with speech and sound, creating a bizarre radio play that is fascinating to listen to. “Agoraphobia” starts with a looped welsh voice saying “I'm not going out, I can't” before being engulfed with sounds and other voices that flit between speaker creating a very unsettling ambience indeed. Normality is resumed for the flute/piano led “Interlude”, before the following two tracks continue the electro-acoustic experimentation. Finally the brief piano notes of “Reprise” leave us back where we started after a highly enjoyable 30 minutes of sound manipulation.

Smother Magazine Editor's Pick (November, 2006)
www.smother.net
Eerie fractured samples pepper Wilhelmina's Dream while haunting soundscapes fill all of the spaces. It's a heavenly piece of musical art for sure and sounds futuristic and almost alien. Intriguing sound collages that take time to fully digest but nevertheless are worth all of the effort. Joe Frawley is an odd sort of electronic musician that likes to keep things complex by doing them simple. I fully recommend this one!

Vital Weekly (No. 564 - February, 2007)
http://www.vitalweekly.net/564.html
Behind the work Wilhelmina's Dream is one Joe Frawley from Norwich, Connecticut, who is both a composer and a visual artist. This is my first encounter with his music. Frawley plays piano and electronics on this release, but that's only half the story. Frawley is also an expert of stealing interesting sounds from others. Much of the material we hear on this release is lifted from classical sources, such as Maurice Ravel, Sergeij Prokofiev and some Meredith Monk. Frawley blends these sources together in quite a beautiful way. Plunderphonics is never my thing very much, but Frawley does a fine job. He loops around small specific parts, intercepts them with taped voices and his own piano playing, as well as his own careful blend of electronics and field recordings. Soft and not very outspoken, Frawley plays a nice play of mood music. I was reminded of some more of the spooky recordings of Nurse With Wound, but Frawley keeps things on a more quiet level. The fact that he lifted a few sound sources here and there doesn't bother me at all, as they are all cleverly intervowen into the overall music. Mood music of a highly original kind. --Frans de Waard

sonomu.net (April 12, 2007)
http://sonomu.net/text/~joe-frawley-wilh/
Here is one well-spent half-hour courtesy of composer Joe Frawley (b. 1971) from Connecticut, whose preferred media include field recordings, snippets of speech and fragments of classical music - a recurring flute and clarinet from Ravel, "creepy piano music" borrowed from Prokoviev, a little humming from Meredith Monk.
  These samplings Frawley himself complements with electronics and piano, joined by flautist Amanda Baker on "Interlude", along with other elements borrowed from the composer´s own oeuvre.
  In all, Wilhelmina's Dream is a lovely suite, a haunting blend of sound collage and delicate instrumental composition which calls to mind a dusty old album of sepia-coloured family photographs.
  "Prelude" (snatched from Frawley´s "Six Pieces for Piano Solo") sets the stage with an elegant melody featuring the chirping of crickets in the background. Gently arranged collage and piano intertwine throughout. "Agoraphobia" sticks out from the rest of the album and truly evokes the dis-ease caused by that illness.
  The field recordings range from village church bells to fragments of recitited poetry, lectures and hestitant, German-inflected dictation. The overall impression is kind of like listening to a 1930s radio broadcast of the performance of a Victorian fairy tale. --Stephen Fruitman

The Sound Projector, print magazine (16th Issue, 2007-2008)
Wilhelmina's Dream is an equally gorgeous and seductive musical work involving live music, electronic music and sound collage. Very romantic piano playing by Frawley himself. Some reworkings of classical music by Ravel and Prokofiev. Samples of vocals from Charlotte Church and Meredith Monk. Again, a very narrative & cinematic approach to using sound effects, spoken word and tape collages, almost to make a radiophonic play of sorts. The title track alone compresses many such associative triggers in the space of six minutes; early Edison sound recordings, applause from a concert, crows cawing, mysterious spoken fragments, bells pealing, all interleaving and folding into the carefully composed musical segments ... no explicit story emerges, but the very strong suggestion of one. Like his other release, this miniaturist work is rich in symbolism, but none of it is ever fully explained: besides all the associations you can hear, there's the titles like 'The Stenographer's Assistant' and 'Agoraphobia' which could be chapters from a lost 1920s novel of romance and despair; and the intriguing cover assemblage of objects with an old photograph, which is a tiny visual poem worthy of Joseph Cornell. Through these hints, Frawley offers us tiny glimpses into a private, hermetically-sealed world that is incredibly beautiful. --Ed Pinsent

Darklife Ezine V X.5 (25 August 2008)
www.darklifezine.de/dlzineX5_cdreviewsaugust08.html
Glad to cover more avant-garde in the form of this intriguing work by Joe Frawley, a dreamy, yet disturbing in places, collage of slow and dark soundscapes and classical piano pieces that have a marked nostalgic feel. Between ambient and neoclassical, Mr. Frawley lets his imagination run amok, filling the half hour of this EP with mysterious and titillating compositions, that -as seen elsewhere- evoke plenty of images and imagery, rigorously black and white, or better yet, sepia tinted to be more accurate. Wilhelmina's Dream is a mysterious little journey, oneiric, fascinating, sensual. Obligatory nighttime, candlelight listening.