Helena Celle – Music for Counterflows
Music for Counterflows is a top-drawer production that pushes at the edges of a particular technology in a considered, engaging and beautiful way
Commissioned for the online 2021 iteration of Glasgow's Counterflows festival, this month sees Kay Logan's work as Helena Celle, Music for Counterflows, get both a digital and physical release, the latter accompanied by a 20-page booklet.
Musically, Logan weaves an hour of uninterrupted oceanic smothering. Whirling distant notes, immaculate rhythms and full mid-EQ washes all build the complex assemblage that functions as a tender, constructed organism of sound. We are fully submerged in process with Music for Counterflows and the work, built using MaxMSP, a visual programming software, is a journey full of an interdependent reactivity, a symbiosis of pushing, pulling and revolving.
Immense beauty comes from the play and interaction between Logan and these AI processes; there's a latent sense of taking centre stage for all the crashes and melodies involved as they submerge and reemerge into immaculate textures that shimmer on the surface. It does well in muddying composition and performance with occasional dramatic outbursts that feel performed rather than composed. Music for Counterflows is a top-drawer production that pushes at the edges of a particular technology in a considered, engaging and beautiful way.
Listen to: Music for Counterflows