Celer – Capri
Press material
Reviews
smallfish.co.uk
Humming Conch is a new label out of Germany and, I have to say, what a divine way to launch your label! Capri shares its structure with Nacreous Clouds to a certain degree as it features 27 tracks. With poetic names and deeply beautiful ambient and drone sounds they create a mystical selection that shares ongoing themes from track to track, yet have their own distinct feeling and tonal quality. Certainly one of the more overtly relaxed Celer release (kind of hard to say that really as I find everything almost spiritually relaxing!) and one that you can simply sit back and allows to wash over you, cleansing your mind and blissing you out. Yup, I’m loving this and it comes most definitely recommended. Congrats to Christian on the launch of the label – looking forward to more!
boomkat.com
“Capri” is an album in the fine tradition of long, ambient, textured recordings that you might find on the 12k or Spekk labels, except spread across 29 short pieces that somehow compress immersive ideas into much shorter segments. Instead of the hour-long recordings that so often define this sound, Celer tempers longform ambitions into short pieces of utter wonder. Drawing on elements you might recognise if you’re into Shuttle 358, Marsen Jules, Gas, Mountains et al, the shortened parameters imbue each track with an unexpected sense of transience and loss, instead of the extended contemplative listening experience you expect, you find yourself attached, removed and funnelled from each 2-3 minute track to the next with captivating results. There’s also a strange use of panning throughout the album, with many of the tracks shifting from single-channel openings to widescreen stereo, adding to the engrossing sense of transformation. The overall impact is like sweeping over a tapestry of vignettes, with loose threads keeping the transitions delicately connected, held together by found sounds and field recordings recorded on the Italian island of Capri (hence the title), adding to the sense of longing and melancholy. By the end of the 78 minute journey you get a sense of just how emotionally engaging a listening experience it’s been, with narrative, change and introspection all formed around the familiar sound palette of contemporary ambient music and home listening. Absolutely gorgeous material – highly recommended.
Vital Weekly (FdW)
Berlin’s MP3 label Resting Sounds have expanded into a new label, a physical release label that will release CDs, CDRs, cassettes and vinyl, and the omnipresent – at least these days it seems – Celer kick off with the first release, a CD with no less than twenty-nine tracks called ‘Capri’. Celer, it should be known by now, is a duo of ‘husband and wife’ Will Thomas Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. They have had various releases in the past six months, and for ‘Capri’ they went to the island of the same name and they play piano, strings, horns, acoustic guitar and field recordings, although the latter have been pushed back a bit. Unlike their previous release, the twenty-nine pieces (spanning almost 78 minutes) are separate entities and a more sketch like. Each and everyone contains of sustaining sounds that move gently around. Whatever they have done to the piano I don’t know, but that too moves in long durations. Field recordings, as said, are pushed back in favor of the instruments.
One could easily argue that Celer doesn’t add much to what we heard previously, but this is absolutely a very fine release, perhaps the best Celer so far. Best enjoyed late at night, played on random and repeat and let it go until you fall asleep and perfect music to wake up by.
EARlabs (Sietse van Erve)
Twenty-nine short pieces recorded on the island Capri by the duo Celer. This busy couple keeps delivering releases as if it is nothing and this time really a gem.
About a week ago I was reviewing Cursory Asperses and now it’s already time for a new release by the Celer. This duo really can’t sit down and relax for just a bit I guess, because even during their vacation on the island Capri (Italy) they have been working on now music which resulted in the new release named after the island:Capri.
The album counts a total of 29 short pieces that are floating by calmly by. The album in this way can be compared with their previous album Nacreous Clouds. But instead of billowing clouds one should think of streaming water on this album. The music reminds me a lot of breaking waves on the beach. A warm summer night.
What also is a different is the use of the instruments here. Where in most of their releases the sound of the instruments is always heavy processed here you have the welcome break from this by a piano that sometimes appears from the soundscapes.
There is one thing though which is a shame (again). There is no trace of the field-recordings used, either they are pushed completely back to the inaudible or they are completely processed. I think this is a shame. But it is the only thing.
Recommended and my favourite by Celer so far.
futhernoise.org (Alan Lockett)
Capri (Humming Conch) is a similarly winsome work replete with piano, strings, horns, acoustic guitar, field recordings – of Mediterranean draughts and the faint sting of the Scirocco. Material was sourced from the isle of Capri during a short summer sojourn, lending a warm balmy aspect. Evocations of ambulations by harbour waves, a salty wind wafting up the Via, crumbling white walls, and the deep colors of the Blue Grotto (see artwork). “Mouthfeels Of Capreae” is a beguiling starter to the proceedings, after which come soft drones and veiled field recordings, processed as if to a breeze, compactings conveying an air of island nights. Recorded in a single room with a piano and a few borrowed instruments, and processed on the hoof, the results are quiet reflections of passing experiences. Celer’s wont is to allow slowly evolving melodies to be heard, at first as if through a dim-tinted glass, then sharpening and clearing gradually, or let fleeting fragments blow by, borne on the dusky air.
Sergey Oreshkin
Новый альбом супружеской четы Вильяма и Дэниэль Лонг (и первый релиз нового лейбла «Humming Conch»), был записан на Итальянском курорте Капри, который и дал название релизу. Как и любой нормальный курорт, Капри подразумевает солнце, теплое море, благостное ничегонеделание, и прочие радости жизни, которыми большую часть года люди обделены. По логике вещей, альбом, записанный в таком райском месте, должен звучать соответственно.
Двадцать девять коротких треков вполне способны доказать, что «Celer» – мастера малых форм, им есть что сказать на незначительном временном промежутке. Используя пианино, орган, скрипки, акустическую гитару и полевые записи, музыканты, путем изменения звучания этих вещей, создают оооочень медленный эмбиент. Клавишные инструменты на «Capri» превалируют – основная тема из одной-двух нот замедляется, размывается, глушится тишиной и эхом, отражается реверберацией. В результате звук становится подобен текущему густому сиропу, отчего и полутораминутный фрагмент альбома кажется необычайно долгим. Когда отдыхают клавиши, в дело идут абстрактные размытые drones акустического происхождения, ровно перетекающие внутри акустической системы. Несмотря на итальянское солнце, «Capri» достаточно мрачный, неподвижный альбом. Окутывающий плотным коконом звук не навевает ничего светлого и позитивного. А ближе к концу создается впечатление, что несколько композиций просто играют по кругу, постоянно повторяясь, или для расширения пространства альбома, или просто потому, что музыкантам нравится придумывать названия для своих музыкальных зарисовок. Однако, не надо думать, что альбом плох или не достоин прослушивания – скорее, наоборот, просто должно совпасть несколько факторов, чтобы эта бесконечно-медленная музыка нашла свой путь к слушателю.
Bleep43 (Toby Frith)
Will Long and Dani Baquet-Long have been producing translucent moments of ethereal music since 2005, and this latest album is the latest installment of rich, golden slices of ambience that are fast becoming some of my favourites in this genre. “Capri” takes its name from the beautiful Italian island where it was recorded, taking onboard field recording techniques mixed in with more traditional instrumentation. Stretched out over 29 tracks, the album ebbs and flows with a persuasiveness that keeps the listener coming back to remember or to revisit the various nooks and crannies that decorate the audial landscape. Some tracks come in at less than a minute long, but unlike other interludes so beloved of musicians of this style, these do provide a sense of narrative and cohesion that lace the album with a sense of tenderness. The overwhelming feeling is of a nebulous and amorphous sound, where it’s difficult to trace the source. There’s all sorts of emotion at play here, and it’s the ambiguity that kept me coming back for me. One imagines the two of them getting lost in the back streets of a sleepy Italian village on a hot afternoon and producing music to reflect that experience. The longest track at 7 minutes, “Lint White” is the most obscure, tendrils of noise and barely audible whispers of sound almost out of reach of ones ear intertwining with each other before dissapating into the ether.
“Capri” never really awakens from a self-imposed myopic slumber, but given the conditions in which it was recorded in, why would you want it to?
Soundscaping
It feels like I have just come back from a refreshing break in Capri, and I never once set foot outdoor to go there but instead savoured the cool breeze of the Mediterranean sea and the rustling sounds of life on this lovely little Italian island from the quiet confines of my own lounge with Celer’s new Capri album on the German label, Humming Conch.
It seems I either take a closer look at artists on the DIY path of releasing music, or releases marking label inaugurations these days, and this collection of shorter, ambient pieces from Celer – who are rapidly becoming an impressive, omnipresent force these days – is an example of the latter, and the reason why we deliberate over their release on this new German imprint should soon be clear. Celer has long since established their name with a distinct feel for long compositions that sway across larger spans of time and to listener this kind of immersion in sound leads to the discovery of lovely soundscapes and details in the sonic picture of the husband and wife duo, Will Long and Dani Baquet-Long. However, it is shorter pieces of around 2-4 minutes that are centrepiece here, with the exception of a longer drone piece of 7 minutes, and over the course of 29 such compositions that ebb and flow as various scenes of the Italian island in summer are recounted and the listener is not allowed entirely to sink back and be soothed to sleep but given moments to come back and discover new details.
Processing sounds to the brink of ambiguity until they are only left with one sound seems a speciality of Celer. Though there are big variations in theme across the 29 pieces, the fascination with smudging out boundaries until sounds bleed into each other and then revel in the little ripples that occur to distinguish bits and pieces from the main stem here produces some very, lovely and warm drones based around piano and other recorded sounds. As a listener you can envision the sleepy town in summer haze, a gentle breeze in island trees, the clamour of the church bells, the shimmering reflections of the surrounding ocean, to name just some associations drawn from Celer’s work. Recommended listening!
Blow Up magazine (Nicola Catalano)
Da un disco pensato e registrato nella bella isola del golfo di Napoli è lecito attendersi una grande solarità. Esattamente ciò che vien fuori dal nuovo album degli americani Celer, sebbene la stessa venga perseguita con mezzi e modalità tutt’altro che ortodossi, perché i coniugi Long scattano le loro ventinove istantanee della località da una prospettiva inusuale, inquadrandola di sbieco e cogliendone quei tratti che sfuggono ai più.
Siamo dalle parti della ambient music nobile, quella di “On Land” di Brian Eno, ma con colori del tutto nuovi e una luminosità abbacinante. E dentro la quale ci si immagina di tutto, la foschia del mattino, la pigrizia suscitata dalla canicola, quando i movimenti sono rallentati, quasi inesistenti, suono umido, indolenza tirrenica (che chi scrive ben conosce) e cieli stellati, tintarella di luna e cale da sogno. Una melancholia pelagica fatta di tessiture sfaldate e drones languidi che fluttuano sostenuti ma con lentezza, nel movimento sinuoso di archi, corni, organetto, field recordings, chitarra acustica e pianoforte, i cui suoni sono processati a un punto tale da percepirsi solo in lontananza, come un ricordo, un’eco perduta. Attonita, lontana e fuori fuoco, la musica di “Capri” è destinata, come paiono suggerire i versi riportati in copertina, a “cuori leggeri, proiettati contro un fondale di azzurro impenetrabile”. (8)
Ondarock (Fabio Russo)
Direttamente da Capri, isola del golfo di Napoli, arriva il nuovo capitolo artistico dei due coniugi musicisti californiani Long, in arte Celer: Will Thomas e Dani Baquet, scrittore e insegnante lui, musicista e poetessa lei. Assieme, redigono una sorta di memoriale sonico in ventinove passi, ventinove come pagine, come giorni di mese trascorsi.
I Celer confermano la prolificità di un percorso affascinante e peculiare, registrando anche in vacanza: mai avrebbero potuto rinunciare a una storia simile, ché di simili non vi sono.
Un senso ancestrale e inviolato è riportato dalle lunghe stasi e dai riposi, dai silenzi eterni e gli slanci fervidi e improvvisi, operati dalle manipolazioni digitali. Imitazioni aderenti che corrono negli spazi, a scandagliare calli e grotte e a investigare l’isola sin dentro la roccia.
“Capri” è il nuovo approdo ma anche la sintesi ideale del trascorso di Will e Dani; un vissuto fatto di viaggi e resoconti artistici, di esibizioni-installazioni digitali e numerose diffusioni in Cd-r per label indipendenti.
Nei ventinove quadri, quasi senza stacchi, che compongono il lavoro, simulacri di drones aleggiano costanti, si animano e si levano pieni quanto più semplificati. Field recordings e corni, strings e chitarre acustiche, tesi in crescendo distillati d’armonica intensità ed esatti trapassi cromatici, risaltano controluce, trasmettono stati di tensione psicologica. Evocano il contrasto formale tra la cuspide, la superficie rocciosa dell’isola e il nucleo intimo e malleabile, formicolante di vita.
Una complessa e tenace singolarità sorge sul piano del ritmo e del respiro. E’ intimamente riportata, via “slowly evolving melodies”, la costante vista del mare che circonda e definisce ariosi paesaggi solari (dai “mild and summery feelings”); il trasporto del vento, i suoni e i silenzi della natura e dell’uomo in un sospeso arcano di magia e desolazione. Come un costante mimetico di torpido e decadente, di etereo e solitario, di anomalo e ordinario.
“Capri” è un diario musicale articolato e intenso, come un ininterrotto stream “puntinista”, sviluppato in latitudine e profondità e indagato in fonde tessiture ambient a mo’ di fasci di luce solare, che non mettono in risalto vedute ideali, ma un totale più intimo e molteplice. (7,5/10)
textura
Husband-and-wife alchemists Danielle Baquet-Long and Will Long (aka Celer) capture the soothing and enveloping ambiance of the Mediterranean setting in this seventy-eight-minute, twenty-nine-track collection. In fact, all of the material for the recording was created during a short summer residency on Capri, an Italian island on the south side of the Gulf of Naples (two photos included with the release make one want to relocate there immediately). Basking in music of such relaxed character, one can almost feel the gentle breezes and picture the iridescent colours of the seaside locale. From field recordings, strings, horns, processing, acoustic guitar, piano, and organetto, Dani and Will build the tracks into shimmering mini-vistas. Apparently recorded in a single room with a piano along with a small number of borrowed instruments, Capri places piano at the forefront (albeit in extremely altered form), as blurry trails of piano chords unfurl into misty, sometimes softly whistling masses. No field recording details identify a particular setting in explicit manner but, being so warm and lulling, the material itself acts as a transporting aural metaphor. Forced to pick a favourite, it would have to be “Lint White” which entrances for the full measure of its seven-minute running time. Call this another fine addition to Celer’s ever-growing catalogue.
EAR/Rational (Don Poe)
A full disc with 29 tracks, recorded one summer during a residency there by 2 fellows. They use real instruments – piano, stringed things – field recordings and processing. I avoided reviewing this for several days – I was listening, just not writing. I love this disc- it has a perfect ambient atmosphere and haze that protects me and keeps me warm. Oddly, it also has a standoff-ish sound, maybe I am watching the musicians from the top of a cliff, close enough to hear the general tones they are making but I can’t see their expressions or really understand how the sounds are generated. Overall, it has shifting tones – brighter in pitch than a drone, but dripping with equal amounts of emotion. I can’t hear the location recordings particularly, maybe they started the sound and they used the processed sound to formulate the music. Very nice!
Brain Dead Eternity (Massimo Ricci)
During a residency in the Italian island of Capri, Will and Danielle Long found the time – as they always did – to transform the experience into mesmerizing aural pictures which we now have the opportunity to get pleasure from, thanks to a new label from Berlin headed by Christian Roth. The sources utilized by Celer for this particular outing were piano, strings, horns, acoustic guitar, field recordings and “the warm breeze of the Mediterranean sea”. The latter constituent – which used to surround and energize yours truly over the course of ever-remembered adolescent summers spent in contemplation of that very marine environment, only from the shores of Tuscany – encircles the music in combination with a thicker-than-usual aura of recollection, embracing us all along 77 minutes flowing with nary a moment of tiredness. The calming effect of these short pieces equals the sense of silent yearning experienced in those tiny fragments of infinity in which levelheaded beings put the finger on a dolorous understanding of the invisible mechanisms regulating their internal temperament.
Capri’s tracks, taken as physical phenomena per se, confirm the amazingly rapid evolution of Celer’s artistic vision. What had started, years ago, as a not-completely-convincing assemblage of loops that could or could not work depending on the choice of the raw matters and the audience’s transitory inclinations, today has become the steady reiteration of a process of metamorphosis: personal experiences into sounds and, in turn, melancholically stirring emotions. It is not easy – except for a recurring piano-based “theme” – to individuate the original instruments under the haze of quiet resonance that the essential substances create, yet the value of this album lies right there: a series of blurred memories, vague images and formless reverberations contributing to deepen the regretful feel of another praiseworthy record which – after Dani’s precocious ascent to the sky – is even more aching to listen to and evaluate, although she remains clearly visible amidst this resounding fog.
Forced to designate a “darling release” for 2009 in the sphere of meaningful ambient/meditative electronica, this would definitely be one of the nominees, and the fact that this is a 400-copy limited edition should persuade the hesitant. You must learn the difference between those who were born to identify with vibrations and frequencies and the ones who invented a job for themselves without the necessary underpinning and, especially, profoundness.
GritFX Magazne (Decoy Spoon)
Celer: Will Long and Danielle Baquet-Long. A husband and wife duo based in Southern California, who made some of the most moving ambient music I’ve ever heard. They were straight up there on high rotation with my other ambient heroes like: Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Steve Roach, Thomas Köner, William Basinski, to the modern standard bearers like: Fennesz, Stars of the Lid, Windy & Carl, Grouper etc etc. This was an album I just recently got, and it’s been getting its requisite flogging, especially at night when I hop in bed and don the headphones. Dream fuel. This is ambient at its most minimal. They fused field recordings from the isle of Capri and distilled them with their signature nurturing drones throughout 29 songs that hover around you, invisibly cataloguing the tender harmonics of inner and outer space. Treated piano/horn/guitar statements that echo and resonate like the residual memory of times past, leaving an unseen watermark in the catacombs of the mind. The latent emotions are pinned further with evocative titles like: “An Erne of a Sigh”, “When Ice Makes You Weep” and “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm”. These guys were incredibly prolific, with over 30 releases in five or so years. The obvious dedication to their art was truly remarkable. Danielle even found time to release more music under the name Chubby Wolf. These were artists who made you feel like you should be doing more with your life. Like living it. Eating it up and getting creative. They’ve set an enviable benchmark for other DIY music makers. And hopefully over time more people will come in contact with their music and enjoy the legacy. Now, you may wonder about my use of past tense. And it’s because on July 8th 2009, Danielle Baquet-Long died from heart failure at the age of 26. It’s always incredibly sad to hear of the passing of such a young and talented artist. Do yourself a favour and seek out the music of Celer. And be thankful. Coz there’s more than ten lifetimes worth of material waiting for you.
sonomu.net (Stephen Fruitman)
Few of us for whom ambient music is worth taking seriously as an art form have failed to take notice of how the duo Celer have in short order quite frankly taken the genre by storm.
Its soft, soft hands, its prudent drones, its lovingly-constructed pieces are pure candy for the ears.
More still who were shocked at the unexpected and brutal loss of one half of this precious duo, Dani, only months ago. She was the one who gave their tracks their beguiling titles. Listen, sound them out: Mouthfeels of Capreae, Ascensionaires, Bracelets Passed to Spanish Hands, Transcribe This Past. That´s only from the present, beautifully-presented release, Capri.
The music of Celer wells up like tears, though it is rarely sad. Only in retrospect, and that is you and I dear listener.
Although ambient is one of the most electronics-based genres ever since Eno posited it, and although the couple certainly didn´t shrink from electricity, Capri is as warm as a hug from a loved one, as human as a mistake. The most careful piano intrustion begs comparison with an Eno track like “Another Green World”, especially in its berevity.
Dani, your songs continue to be sung, wordlessly, deeply, and endlessly, taking necessary French leave.
