Dave Kirby - Contrails (2016)

Dave Kirby is a Somerset UK based sound artist who has been active since 1982. Over the years Dave has put work out on labels such as Tesco Org (Germany), Reverse Records, Broken Flag, Cold Spring, 3rd Stone, Occupied Silence and Place Editions to name but a few. He only started releasing music under his own name recently and you may perhaps be more familiar with his power electronic/industrial work as Satori or his occasional collaborative work with film maker Barry Hale as Duende.

Contrails as an album is part of Dave's long-standing project 'Extreme Environments' which started in 1985. The original idea of the series was to create longer Ambient pieces recorded to cassette with the intention that the listener could play them back on headphones at a specified location. There were five previous tapes made available and in 2014 Dave decided to revive the project using digital music technology to provide further scope in the exploration of this idea. The first release was the soundtrack CD to 'Helm', a book by visual artist Baz Nichols. With 'Contrails', Dave prefers to refer to the six drone pieces that comprise the album as movements. It hones in on the act of movement and the forces that are disturbed as it occurs.

A first listen to Contrails might make you consider it as a 'sleep album' given its contemplative and calming presence but it is perhaps best enjoyed when taken to the outside world. As the components of this body of work unfold, you will become fascinated with how it interacts with the sounds and visuals of the outdoors.
It is fitting that the cover artwork (taken in Rome in 2006) is of a plane appeared to slowly traverse the sky as, like the music itself, despite the graceful nature in which the jet glided through the atmosphere there were powerful (and disruptive) forces at work.