Joe Frawley - Reviews

The Hypnotist | Tangerine | Wilhelmina's Dream

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

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.

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