Animal Expert unfolds through an elegantly opaque, almost inscrutable logic—one which gradually overpowers, rather than satisfies, one’s desire for an audible syntax. Distinct, indelible impressions begin to form: the odours and dimensions of a particular space, the feeling of holding an object in one’s hand; yet these fleeting associations converge unexpectedly or even disappear before they can be fully ascertained.
The album’s volatile succession of hyper-vivid auditory scenarios—crafted meticulously from both audio-verité and synthetic sound—manages to be tumultuously evocative while projecting staunch phlegmatic ambiguity.
On the surface, Strickland’s approach to the material seems not to acknowledge the expressive capacities of its constituent elements. Various species of oppressively loud, serrated noise, burst forth throughout the disc, but are stripped of any context for them to be read as violent. Conversely, a naked recording of gentle footsteps within a small room exudes an intimacy that remains sealed within that singular moment.
For all its apparent discontinuity, the pacing of the works affords ample time for one to savour each rich scene before it dissolves into the next (or is eradicated outright). Elements or reminiscences of them resurface, too—often mysteriously. Ultimately there’s a sense of alien poignancy that gathers over time. While the trajectory of each of the three works here confounds and even disturbs the listener, the particular colour and sensation of each event within them is so irrefutable that one’s memory cannot help but cling to them.
It’s a startlingly unique debut from an artist whose diverse practice as a sound artist, improviser, and composer will undoubtedly gain further recognition.
Nick Storring is a Toronto-based composer, musician, and writer, and a contributing editor to Musicworks. His music has been presented and performed by the Esprit Orchestra, Eve Egoyan, Quatuor Bozzini, Beijing’s Musicacoustica Festival, and Vancouver New Music. An avid collaborator, Storring has composed for films by Terrance Odette, Ingrid Veninger and, in collaboration with Dafydd Hughes, for the National Film Board’s award-winning Web documentary High Rise: Universe Within (2015), directed by Katerina Cizek. He’s also scored productions by Litmus Theatre and MT Space, worked with celebrated choreographers Yvonne Ng, Marie Josée Chartier, Brandy Leary, and Deepti Gupta, and created music for “ambient gaming environment” Tentacle, which was mounted at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2011. Storring’s writing has appeared in Exclaim!, The Wire, and AUX.tv. He also contributed liner notes to Alga Marghen’s reissue of the ’60s band Intersystems’ entire recorded output, as well as RVNG Intl.’s box of early psych trio Syrinx’s reissues and previously unreleased material Tumblers from the Vault.