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Back To Minus

by TL0741

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1.
Orchrustra 14:39
2.
3.
4.
Simmervolts 05:55
5.
Morphantasia 04:44

about

"What", someone asked, "would electronic music sound like if no one had made the keyboard the controller of choice for the music synthesizer?" It was late 2004 or early 2005. "Something like this." Pat Gillis answered, offering what became a track called "Mirror Faces Mirror" which appears on the first TL0741 release, "Back To Minus". It declared a sonic Year Zero, plunging analogue synths, digital processing, and tape manipulation into an atavistic, gridless electron ooze free of received harmonic and rhythmic concepts. All pieces are performance recordings or studio-based structured improvisations.

"For a total change of scene, get yourself a guaranteed back door route into the Underworld by employing the services of TL0741, a one-piece anti-rave run by the American noisenik Pat Gillis, who describes this music as ‘crusty hypnotic effluent sonic anxieties’. Yowzah! Now, although I receive hefty amounts of purely atonal cosmick explorations through the post, much of it is neither useful nor even interesting. So it was to my utter delight that this amazing BACK TO MINUS debut album has demanded heavy rotation for the past three weeks, colouring my meditations, illustrating some of my deepest dream patterns, and generally munging up the entire neighbourhood."
Julian Cope, September 2008 Drudion


"More good news from Pat Gillis, whose aural fantasies make great use of synthesizers, effects and tape manipulation to achieve results which many knob-tweaking nerds can’t even daydream in terms of creative fantasy and inventiveness. A couple of titles here should give an idea about what to find: “Orchrustra” and “Morphantasia” are precisely what one would expect while traveling across the lands where the reshaping of human discernment is a daily practice. Large portions of this material were recorded directly onto two tracks during live performances, yet there’s a specific structural design in what we hear, typical example of a mind ready to catch the most infinitesimal signal to transform it into striking figurations coloured by unhinged, often plain amazing timbres.

Synthetic morsels of deeper perception, intoxicating diffusions, corrosions of remote harmonies and ringing-around orbiting bodies let us recall different exploratory eras at once; we notice an evident respect for earlier-period pioneers and an attentive ear on the evolutional side of electronic music. Gillis knows what he’s doing and "Back To Minus" is a highly enjoyable demonstration of the development of his sonic ideals, a perfect proportionality between the chaotic activities of contradictory anti-patterns and the intricate mechanisms that – miraculously - preserve an ideal “galactic equilibrium”."
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes


“If you want to introduce happy hippie music that is celebrating freedom to the waltz dancers of 19th century Germany, you are going to find many confused faces. The same could happen if the musical explorers of space rock of the Seventies could hear TL0741's "Back To Minus", for instance, with vocabulary changed so much it is barely the same language anymore.

"Orchrustra" begins with a low hum that serves the background to an ever-growing number of voices. Insanely conversing with each other, these sounds create patterns and inner rhythms that leave the listener to wonder about their true nature and meaning. Resembling a lost recording of something alien through a rusty speaker, "Orchrustra" stands out as a monument, telling stories you cannot possibly understand. At times, some ideas might be related to the musical screams you can find on some of Nurse With Wound's albums. Tiny sounds that are almost trying to see if they can break the tension between the artist and the listener. Other sounds are harsher and rougher, taking up more space and volume, sometimes swallowing the other elements.

However, it is their structure that stands out the most. "Back to minus" is an experimental album in the sense that it seems as if its creator, Pat Gillis, is trying to balance as many objects as he possible can. In this attempt great tension is created through the various languages that these sounds have, and throughout these five tracks this tension is being kept, if not tightened, without breaking up. On "Simmervolts", the suspense is getting heavy, with high shrieks hovering above low hums that seem to float together in the dense space that is always apparent throughout the album. It is alien, it is escaping any attempt to understand and predict its behaviour. But it is a wise array of sounds and I am sitting and enjoying its alien reason. "Morphantasia" bids farewell with the album's best attempt to communicate with me. With hints for a melody that used to pulse under layers upon layers of feedbacked sounds. It is a gold plate with a song written on it.
But by now, the different events that have scorched the original melody beyond recognition and created something else instead, are much more interesting. Like a golden plate with the old drawing of us human beings, but with a much more interesting array of frozen dust or dead bacteria that will be far more interesting than a mere drawing.

So is there a message in all this? Maybe. But "Back To Minus" uses this message, whatever it is, as a canvas for its aesthetics. A highly recommended adventure indeed!”
Oren ben Yosef, Heathen Harvest


"TL0741's music sounds like it emanates from large blazing hot vacuum tubes, not those little chips whose model number the band name signifies; TL0741 is a "Low Noise J-FET Quad Operational Amplifier". Semi-conductors or not, "Back to Minus" falls on the dark ambient side of sound abuse. Having the pleasure of experiencing many a live performance by Mr. Gillis, I can tell you that he has a healthy lust for analog gear, patch cables, and blinking lights....no fancy modern samplers or laptops here! Congruent to his Northern Machine project, TL0741 is a solo effort that probes the territory of evil retro sci-fi without one ounce of camp. Every filter sweep to bassy drone rumble, projects the listener into ever deeper foreboding sonic atmospheres.

The five track full length begins with "Orchrustra", a fourteen minute layered drone meditation that does an excellent job introducing the rest of the recorded journey. "Orchrustra" cycles through noise territories of throbbing bass in counterpoint with modulated vintage synthesizer swells. At various points harsher textures rise from the depths, which fit well within the carefully crafted noise landscape TL0741 designs.

"Back to Minus" gurgles and plods along like a large amphibious spaceship, and audible is the distant roaring drone of the engine in its belly. TL0741 has a knack for colouring in the same shade of doom, while revealing more and more detail through the slow morphing of his effect settings. Finally, the knobs rotate back as the suggested spacecraft leaves us behind forever.

"Mirror Faces Mirror" marks the halfway point, while the title suggests an optical infinity, the track has great improvised textures with less of the previous tracks emphasis on composition or implied alien soundscapes. It is certainly cosmic in that Krautrock / Spacerock type of way, and I feel like I can see the performer behind the wall of sound giving it a human element. Depending on your philosophy this may be the best or worst track on "Back To Minus".

"Simmervolts" and "Morphantasia" are the the equivalent to an audio “still life” when compared to the filmic sounding "Orchrustra". "Simmervolts" rings with the high frequency of a self-oscillating filter whereas "Morphantasia" spins and slowly unwinds to reveal a more desolate terrain.

So what is the verdict on "Back to Minus"? …where does it fall on the noise-o-meter? If you liked Zoviet France and Throbbing Gristle back in the day I think you will really enjoy this. Gillis has exacting standards when it comes to modulating those VCOs but if you prefer your noise with a bit of glitch and buffer-override, perhaps you may need a bit more sound mangle in your ear."
Derek Morton, furthernoise.org


"Back To Minus" is a detailed disc of ambient textures ranging from squirming digital synths, to analog hums, delayed guitars, subdued feedback and probably even some subtle samples here and there. Clocking in at about 50 minutes the tracks are layered, lush and dynamic. There is almost too much going on here as one sound leads into the next so quickly. The overall feel of the record has a mostly digital synth quality, the sounds are well produced, mostly light sometimes wandering into glitch territory, but do get noisier here and there. "Back To Minus" never really reaches the point of “harsh” though, and throughout the album TL0741’s focus remains on sound design.

TL0741’s sound reminds me a lot of Tribes of Neurot without the more melancholic qualities. Most of the tracks here are made up of medium length gestures ranging about 30-45 seconds each. There will be a new sound or two introduced, manipulated, then usually some kind of build up before the next passage fades in and mixes into the track. This makes for an album that is constantly evolving and covering new ground, but on a larger scale "Back To Minus" has a bit of difficulty grabbing my attention. Perhaps the only track that doesn’t stick to this formula is “Mirror Faces Mirror” a 10 minute drone fest that stays on the more minimalist side of things.

It’s an album that I’ve listened to countless times but still cannot seem to wrap my head around, or remember very well for that matter. I will go out on a limb here and say for this kind of music it’s a good thing. To be once again drawn into these traveled yet still new and engaging atmospheres every time the disc is spun is a refreshing feeling. "Back To Minus" is a well thought out and varied dosage of experimental ambient. If you enjoy projects like Tribes of Neurot, Fennesz, or Oblivion Ensemble then you will enjoy the sounds of TL0741."
Blood Ties Webzine

credits

released July 15, 2008

Pat Gillis: synths, effects, tape manipulation
Tomb Hermance: audio mastering
Bill Warford: CD preparation
Cheryl Sobas: images
ENC: art and graphics layout

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about

TL0741 Alexandria, Virginia

TL0741 is the solo project of Patrick Gillis, a synth / electronics player based in Virginia, USA. He has collaborated in Northern Machine, The Angus Brainpan, NoMuzic, and Extremities, as well as being an occasional member of The Sloth Ensemble. From 2007 to 2018 he participated in the Sonic Circuits DC music series and annual festival as grant writer and technical coordinator. ... more

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