Reviews:

(Vital Weekly) For no reason, I assumed Flag Day Recordings to be a record label with a strong, if not sole, interest in all things modular electronics. This CD by Eloine proves me wrong. Behind this name is Bryan Day, an inventor of instruments, boxes with springs, bits of metal and wood, but also using broken electronics, “vintage computer synthesisers,” and field recordings. He’s also the man behind the Public Eyesore and Eh? labels and someone who works a lot with improvisation. That is certainly also the case in his solo work, and even though this is the first solo release since 2016,’ Bizarre Flight’ by Gertrude Tapes (not reviewed), he also uses the name Eloine when working with others. Day recorded the music in his studio in San Pablo, California, and on the road during residencies in Brazil and India. Some of the instruments he plays were commissioned pieces and he gave them away to people he worked with. I understand that these nine pieces are not the result of recording one improvisation but the results of editing various recordings into small, coherent pieces of music. As such, the improvisation is the mere start, gathering the bricks to layer a composition. Yet these pieces still retain some of that improvised feeling, which brings a certain amount of freshness to the music. Using various bricks, the music also has some density, maybe not be achieved when playing everything in real time. Sometimes drones come into play, adding that modular quality to the otherwise electro-acoustic quality of the music. Eloine’s approaches are diverse, from dark and brooding to outgoing and joyous. There is a genuine love for his inventions and a want to extract a many different sounds as possible, and this doesn’t result in an album that collapses with the many varieties but still sounds very coherent. If you are interested in electro-acoustic improvisation, I strongly recommend this album, and also when improvisation is not your cup of tea, then you should investigate this one. - Frans de Waard

(Disaster Amnesiac) The photos gracing Eloine's new CD, Moldy Cushions, appear to be close ups of mushrooms or spores of some other form. Were they taken with some very advanced gear that photographer Holly Wilson has access to? Or, are they enlarged bits of data snapped with a mere iPhone or some such other? Either way, they fit really well with the sounds on Bryan Day's solo project and its new physical output (of the digital realm, anyway; we all know that Day makes fascinatingly formed instruments for his own and artistic patrons' use too). The term has been over used, and by Disaster Amnesiac as well, but I just keep coming back to "granular" as a way of assisting in the word visualization that accompanies listening to music that has been submitted for review over here in the Land of the Devil's Breath. Granular spaces are the spaces in which Eloine finds its unique voices. There are not stated melodies as such, although there has been at least one occasion, as I listened to Cushions, in which as very definite melodic form arose from this masterfully done Musique Concrete. There can be no doubt that Day is after sounds that are in variance with traditional notions of melody, but, equally, this writer has no doubt that Bryan would not be averse to that phenomena arising, either. He's just not that kind of guy. He is a very creative guy, and I've seen him thinking really intensely, even when it's just, you know, bumping into him and Holly at a local thrift shop. True story! But back to Cushions. Eloine has an arsenal of sounds, ones which have been crafted both by Bryan Day and some of his co-creators (International Division), and from them the listener can hear imaginary cities of mammoth proportions being constructed. Did Day see a lot of this in India and Brazil? These are both BRICS nations, so presumably, there is a lot of "development" happening within them, what with being allied to China and Russia and all. Eloine makes visualization so accessible from organized sound! Put your phone down while you listen. Grab a chair by a window and watch the world's drift match those of Eloine. You'll hear theremin sounds, stately electronic sounds, percussive sounds, post-production effects, cybernetic atmospheres and so forth. Formal structures are indeed presented within Moldy Cushions. They are ones very specifically composed by Bryan Day under the moniker of Eloine. No two mycological specimens can ever be the same ergo why should so thoughtful a person as Bryan make the same music as everyone else? Can you believe that that's still an issue? Sadly, it is. For an antidote to group think, proceed immediately from reading this post to Flag Day Records and show your support. Years from now, you can count yourself amongst the supporters of a genuine American artist as he was making deep strides within his body of work.- Mark Pino