Nak Won

Nak Won is a major addition to Carl Stone's discography. Released in late 2002 by the French label Sonore, it presents three pieces performed in real time on a laptop computer running Max/MSP software and recorded in various locations on the West Coast. A demanding program, possibly Stone's most uncompromising album to date, Nak Won is nevertheless highly rewarding. The title track, 24 minutes long, could have you a little worried at first. It starts like one of Sachiko M's sine-wave pieces. Arid at first, it slowly grows as the tones get chopped up and thrown around into the stereo field. A lush background of electronic noises swells at the midpoint, receding as activity decreases to complete what ends up being a cycle. "Kreutz" is very different. First of all, it reveals its sound source up front: a piano. More ambient, the music hovers delicately, like one of Ekkehard Ehlers' limping waltzes or Christian Fennesz's cloudy surf music reminiscences. But the highlight of this album is the half-hour "Darul Kabap." Here, Stone samples, breaks down, and reassembles an Arabian singer, traditional Chinese music, dance music, and a few more sources (Hans Reichel's daxophone at one point?) into a dizzying cut-and-paste race that brings to mind Ground Zero's Revolutionary Pekinese Opera. It never reaches that level of mind-boggling schizophrenia, but it makes a commanding effort trying and ends up (especially in the last ten minutes) sounding like Kid 606 minus the poise! ~ François Couture, Rovi