Pocket Music
Neuma, 2021
9/10
The composer and educator James Caldwell has turned the seemingly simple idea of making music out of things found in your pocket into a refined science. However, he’s not just limiting himself to pocket items; office supplies, yard items and even food can be harvested as music, and he brings in fascinating computer work, too.
“Deep Pocket Music” starts the listen with a mysterious, twinkling approach as busy, percussive like acrobatics unfold with a primal energy that’s unpredictable, and “Out Of Pocket Music” follows with an often soothing, meditative quality that’s also kind of spacey and unique in all the best ways.
The middle tracks, “More Pocket Music” and “Blocks Box”, are equally atypical, where the former manipulates the sound of water, low buzzing and electronic ambience, while the latter gets nearly into sci-fi territory in its electroacoustic and abstract vision.
Towards the end, “Hip Pocket Music” makes great use of space and tension with sparse ‘drumming’, quivering moments of calculated haze and even some haunting bits, and “Corner Pocket Music” exits the listen with an almost tribal feel that transfers into a mechanical climate of much intrigue.
This is Caldwell’s first portrait release, and it comes with a lifelong fascination with electronic music and a keen attention the sounds that we all hear daily, but tend to disregard as background noise. There isn’t much, if anything, out there that runs parallel to Caldwell’s vision, and even if there was, it would never be as creative as Pocket Music.
Travels well with: Robert Moran- Buddha Goes Back To Bayreuth; Kenneth Gaburo- New Music Choral Ensemble