Shifts
Trees/Leaves LP (E43)
This record is Shifts’ probable farewell, following over a decade of
recordings and concerts. Initiated by Frans de Waard for a ‘soft guitar’
record on Richo Johnson’s Fourth Dimension label in 1995, the project
has evolved to include many releases, all distinguished by their singular
instrumentation (including two deviations from the guitar — Sonates
and Interlude uses the piano, while One Piece for Cymbal has a single
cymbal). Trees/Leaves was made with a four-string Spanish guitar
de Waard bought for one Euro on Koninginnedag (Dutch Queen’s Day)
in 2004.
Besides running his Korm Plastics label and recording variously as
Kapotte Muziek, Goem, Freiband or Captain Black, Frans de Waard is
also the founder and editor of Vital Weekly, the music news and
reviews bulletin he had been publishing 48 times a year since 1987 —
an impressive commitment in our fickle times.
First edition of 200 copies.
£10
Frans de Waard, relaxing between recordings. Self portrait, 2007
This LP will likely constitute the last release by Frans de Waard under
the Shifts moniker. Started in 1995, this project has probably gone even
too far away in respect to de Waard’s original intentions, but it has surely
meant quite a lot for aficionados of string-based droning (even if once he
did make a piece with a cymbal). This final chapter is exactly what one
would expect in a Shifts album: two long mantras for superimposed
guitars, whose strings are bowed or in some way stressed with motorised
appliances. No changes in the harmony, no illusions of modulations,
nothing. The only thing that we feel mutating is the frequency of the
vibration, and this makes the sound range from a bagpipe-like drone to
a harmonium replica. Imagine, if you will, a cheaper and mellower version
of Tony Conrad’s most entrancing material and you’re almost there.
Massimo Ricci at Touching Extremes
—
Both Trees and Leaves are long, minimal layered guitar experiments,
with just enough variation and depth to warrant your attention and enough
similarity to lull you into a comfortable listen. Those qualifications are what
makes this album great and probably the best Shifts [record] out there.
Freek Kinkelaar at Vital Weekly