Search - Hafler Trio :: Thirsty Fish

Where am I? Who am I?

10/13/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Found tapes, aural collage, surreal and all too real at the same time. One of the most memorable experiences of my life was listening to this CD in my Discman while waiting in line for my plane ticket at the airport. The busy crowd noises and banging doors on the disc blended almost imperceptibly with the "real" noise around me to the point where I could no longer tell the difference. In fact, I didn't *want* to know the difference. By the way, I missed my flight."

One rough ride!

DAC Crowell | 04/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You don't necessarily buy Hafler Trio releases because they're going to be 'easy listening'...and this is no exception. In fact, this could better be termed 'uneasy listening'. "A Thirsty Fish" is the aural equivalent of being transformed into a doggie toy and being violently shaken around by a rottweiler. Sound sources shift and jump with maximal contrast from one type to another, with seeming illogic. Snippets of voices and other semi-recognizable sounds flit by, just fast enough to realize what they are, but not to comprehend them. And just as you get used to one set of aural circumstances, you're flung headlong into something else. Normally, this would be a huge laundry-list of negatives...but in the course of playing with all of these negative aesthetics, Andrew McKenzie crafts a work that is a seeming parallel to the surging bewilderment of the modern landscape. Hard to take, and downright devastating if taken at one sitting, this album is a tour-de-force in what can be accomplished by musique concrete methods, even in this day and age. And in the class of this sort of music, it ranks right up there with works by luminaries of sonic assemblage such as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Max Neuhaus, Pierre Henry, et al."

Classic Hafler trio

gone daddy gone | 12/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the finest of their recordings, McKenzie could just do no wrong at this point and was more or less the lord and saviour of experimental music in the 1980s. These caused intense debate about whether or not he was making music, but this is indeed great music. The title is a sufi metaphor, and some of the record is ostensibly based on Sufi and Fourth Way principles combined with Psychophysical theories, as much of his music was at this time. Throw in a fair amount of Dada (the trio was never actually indeed a trio) with electro acoustics and location recordings/found sound, and the usual tip of the hat to the gysin/burroughs recordings. One of their best."