Errands [LP]

Ahti & John McCowen, Marja - Errands [LP]

Errands is the first duo recording from Marja Ahti, Swedish-Finnish sound artist and electroacoustic composer, and John McCowen, a native of Southern Illinois now residing in Iceland, whose work centers on a radical exploration of clarinet multiphonics. Working without electronics, McCowen has spent years finessing techniques that allow him to layer beating patterns and split tones that belie their source in a monophonic instrument.

Meeting in Iceland to record, Ahti gathered field recordings capturing everyday life in Reykjavik, threading bustling streets and humming engines between static sinewaves, clarinet resonances, and fleeting textures. The result is a kind of stillness at peace with continuous change — the treatment of the stereo field as a compositional element linking Ahti and McCowen's music to the electroacoustic tradition, while their sensibility remains radically their own.

Track Listing:

SIDE A:
Chorales (16:52)

SIDE B:
Physical Display (18:39)