Billy Gomberg
Comme
[mOAR]
Based in Brooklyn, Billy Gomberg is a sound artist who incorporates digital treatments, acoustic recordings, programming and analog synthesis to create the totality of his art form. Known for his collaborations with Robert Dick and Joshue Ott [as part of Other Vultures] and a trio of Delicate Sen [with Anne Guthrie and Richard Kamerman], his latest release “Comme” is a stellar example of what extremes are possible when one applies themselves to the task at hand. You can tell this is not just “another” project for the sake of documentation as is too often the case with certain musicians. Rather, Gomberg sounds as if he has really invested a ton into his sound-art. Too involved to be sloppily labelled as ambient, sounds on the record range from trickling, subdued motifs to slabs of squelchy, intermittent drill-like concoctions. Music moves in a rather delicate manner across a landscape that at first sounds barren, but as the album progresses, turns out to be full of lush imagery. Gomberg draws cautiously from his abundant palette of sounds – poking the listeners in the rib one moment, while prodding to investigate with keen attention the next. Progressing through lulls and mid-level peaks, the intensity of the album can only be measured by its subtle adeptness to the surroundings we inhibit during a bleak, grey morning. “Comme” is that stirring, gentle light that awakes the senses and prepares the mind for the tasks of the day ahead.
- Tom Sekowski
