CNV02
release date: 06.Mar.2004
MARK ALLAN - T.A.F. Series vol.1
reviewsArchive.org // April 03, 2006
Several careful listens to Mark Allan’s “T.A.F. Series One”have made it one of my personal favorites in the realm of minimal music. This all too brief EP gives six snapshots of minimal ambiance via generative tones and harmonics. The sounds here are evidently all derived from the same source like the six offspring of common parents, but they each have their own unique qualities that distinguishes them from the others: “Shift180”- modest, moody; “ConvChoir”- content, confident; “Oshiot-Konetachi”- confused, meandering; Circon-Schx”- outgoing, sparkling; “Kamura-Blae”- gentle, reflective; “Anonical-Trahed”- melancholy, pondering.
[ Larry Johnson ]
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Loop Magazine // 08.2004
This is a new net-label called Con-V dedicated to spread experimental music and sound art. In their roster are included the works of the artists Mnoki, Kenneth Kirschner, Scott Taylor, Elín, Federico Monti, Mark Allan and Pablo Reche. This last one is the only one I know, which lets the challenge to me in order to know the other productions.
Today we are going to review the EP of this Scottish artist Mark Allan. Six cuts of great emotion by its parsimony and outstanding ambience. The keyboards wrapped with their almost sacred atmospheres which Allan promotes with synthesizers and organ, thus creating a great solemnity ambience, sometimes disquieting that suggest images of some spectral soundtrack.
Some repeated notes approach drone music, but the sound waves adopt different tones. 'Anonical-trahed' it seems to me the more suggestive track for its melodic lines of great stature, epic, celestial, certainly magnificent.
In general the tracks are short – two or three minutes long – so I hope that in the near future we can listen to a complete album of this interesting artist.
[ Guillermo Escudero ]
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Archive.org // June 08, 2004
Mark Allen is from Scotland and debuts on Conv with this 6 track EP.
The structure and sample sounds of all tracks seem the same,
Mark concerns himself with shifting cathedral organs upon each other and
timestretch them into ethereal ambient drones. It works very well on "ConvChor",
a track that sounds almost underwatery through the filtering.
The other tracks are not as interesting though.
[ Sebastian Redenz ]
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Archive.org // March 07, 2004
This is just perfect for Sunday mornings -
very mellow, understated looping ambient that definitely sounds
like the Eno-styled chilled pioneers. Recommended.
[ Simon Carless ]
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