Dominique Vaccaro | Overlapped Memories
TSSS Tapes (CS/DL)
Field recordings meet tapeloops head on via the latest from Dominique Vaccaro on Italian tape imprint tsss tapes. Overlapped Memories is a fresh fusion of many elements, built and arranged like an assemblage of engaging and irrational principles. He tends to have hidden his sources well, allowing some parts to be sustained while other short actions pivot in and out. Water is lifted from a larger source via some sort of container while an amplified bounce like a basketball at close range fades in and out, these sounds are ultimately braided together, making for a strange pattern.
In fifteen short tracks my introduction to Vaccaro‘s work resonates with me powerfully. While it has analytic intentions, it’s not exclusively about digging into a surface to find a hidden treasure, instead he allows you into the process with each gesture. It’s less about the end result and more about the road taken, even if the traces are purposefully vague. The composer seems to take delight in digging through layers, and the resulting resonance of apparatus and other detritus that comes into earshot.
When he includes the sound of human nature, voices, repeated, on 022933 ii, it sounds more like a wasp’s nest than anything else – despite the strings and other lost melodies. Percussion is made via residual noise made by movement, perhaps the open mic hitting a surface in the process. In this light, the most mundane of whitenoise comes into the sphere and finds meaning. There are tears, scratching, static and hiss along these lines, though moreover what you are experiencing is a detailed sense of editing throughout, and Vaccaro does so with a nuanced ear, one that doesn’t simply press repeat, in fact, each of his loops slips in and out of frame when you least expect it. Don’t miss my standout cut here, 022933 i. This is a superb recording.
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