“I became interested in the idea that recording is a bottomless medium,” explains multi-instrumentalist Gryphon Rue in the press notes of his new album. “You have a bag that can fit any sound; the room in the bag is limitless.” Indeed, the sounds conjured up by Rue on I Keep My Diamond Necklace in a Pond of Sparkling Water draw from a variety of sources and span multiple genres within the “experimental” umbrella. Rue plays bowed chimes, modular synthesizer, acoustic guitar, Mellotron, bells, and more, but also adds found sounds, animals, and even planetary signals to create a setting that is at once mysterious, soothing, complex, and quirky.
Coming off last year’s 4n_objx, which implemented a more electronic, processed aura, the new LP is much more organic. “Glade” opens the proceeding with lots of high-end ethereal tones that are eventually lowered and complemented with odd, mechanical sounds (at times sounding like the distant whirr of helicopter blades).
That’s followed by one of the two epic-length tracks: “Jaeggy” clocks in at around 13 minutes and is a true sonic adventure, as if the listener is getting a tour of the innards of Rue’s studio. The long, spacey, sustained notes, combined with the flutter of alien sounds, bring to mind early Tangerine Dream, in all their vintage ambient splendor.
“An Octave Below Thunder” is the other lengthy number, beginning with the soothing sounds of a purring cat, but eventually morphs into the moody growl of brown noise. Oddly, the song doesn’t go through a series of mini-episodes like something of this length might. It’s essentially a low-end soundscape that sticks with you, creating a truly ambient blanket of sound that’s occasionally interrupted by clicks, whirs, and other strangely placed sounds.
Besides the found sounds, samples, animals, and nature recordings, Rue is essentially alone on I Keep My Diamond Necklace…, except for Odetta Hartman, whose exquisite violin dots tracks like “Jaeggy” and the exotic stutter of “Blue Eraser”, as well as the percussive, almost danceable “The Other Green Worm”. When left to his own devices, the textures and sound combinations that Rue wrests from his arsenal are truly magnificent. “Squatter’s Quarters”, one of the many highlights, strikes the perfect balance between sampling and more traditional instrumentation, resulting in a track that soothes while also incorporating a heavy dose of mystery.
Closing out the record is the interesting experiment “A Garden for Orpheus”. Essentially, a series of audio samples from noted art critic Alfred Frankenstein, in which he voices his opinion on Paul Klee’s drawing of the same name, the voices overlap and fold over each other, creating something of an oblique tribute to Steve Reich pieces like “Come Out”. An artist of impeccable taste and unique vision, Gryphon Rue’s seemingly limitless abilities have allowed him to create, in I Keep My Diamond Necklace in a Pond of Sparkling Water, a work of stellar beauty.