Colin Andrew Sheffield

STM 026 is a profound and integral musical compilation that saturates the audible range with repetitive fragments of magnetic minimalist compositions from such artists as Rick Reed, Tom Recchion, Matt Shoemaker and other acclaimed musicians.

The author of the mix is Colin Andrew Sheffield, an American experimental sound artist and curator who was born in El Paso, Texas in 1976, currently residing in the Seattle area. Before eventually making a total transition to electronic music in 1998, Sheffield was playing in various collaborative situations as a self-taught drummer. After initially working with exclusively digital sources, in recent years, Sheffield has refined his approach and now focuses on the strict re-contextualization of other commercially available recordings. “I do not use a computer or any software for composing. I use a turntable, a nearly 20-year-old sampler, and a portable 64-track digital workstation as my primary instruments. It’s a stripped down method, to be sure. But, like the French writing group the OuLiPo (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle), I am a big believer in the merits of constraint”. In 1998 Sheffield founded Elevator Bath record label which gradually had become a lighthouse in the field of intellectual music in USA and abroad. Sheffield has released a two-digit number of solo recordings since 1998 on labels such as Quiet World, Invisible Birds, Mystery Sea and Elevator Bath.

In the records

STM 026 is an extraordinary music compilation of 8 static experimental compositions that have enough intention to affect everyone’s cherished experience of listening. The mix is entirely comprised of rare or unreleased material from artists associated with Sheffield’s label Elevator Bath. The basis of the compilation stands on the flowing sublime atmospheres which are combined with the electrified field recording motives, sparkling rustles and gentle suggestive device effects. Abyssal musical background is covered with a sonorous tension. Accurately polished soundscapes are gradually shifting and unfolding while creating a subtle balance between constant sound and delicate chord variation. This is a weird psychological drama film soundtrack which should evoke interest in unique light noise, drone and ambient music.

STM 026 is like the underrated Russian avant-garde artist Paul Mansouroff’s exclusively abstract painting series “Formule picturale” where pure coincidence in surface matrix explores questions of space and spatial correlations.