Francisco Lopez & Lawrence English

This collaboration between two looming figures in the world of experimental sound has both its predictable moments and surprises. The raised eyebrows may come for fans of Australian artist English (the Room40 label boss), whose recent output on Touch and 12k has dwelt more in the realm of melodic ambient and minimal electronic works. Here, his field recording, "Wire Fence Opening," is a distant observation of creaks and either crickets or birds (or both) that more closely resembles, well, Francisco Lopez. In fact, Lopez's source piece, "Untitled #175," is a doppelganger of English's but doubles the length, volume and kinetic energy. The second half of the experiment comes when each artist "remixes" the other. English's "Pattern Review By Motion" plays up the artificiality of the contextualization, eventually forcing the tape sound into an eruption of hiss and warble. For his part, Lopez searches through the spectrum until he isolates a gut rumbling frequency that's just tickled by the distant sounds of nature.