...the CDr that I have settled upon is the sixth in the Instamatic series released on riley French’s Engraved Glass label, a recent release that blends together field recordings he made while visiting Prague last year. The Instamatic series is based around this kind of travel recording, little snapshots of a place and time, a bit like leafing through a few pages of someone’s photo album....There is something that I always enjoy about this kind of site-specific field recording...Once the nature of the album was clear to me then I slipped right into the music, trying to understand where every sound came from, trying to identify where the joins sat from one set of sounds to the next, spotting the sound of approaching cars way off in the distance, listening to passing footsteps for as long as I could before they became subsumed in the next set of sounds to come along...The recording quality of this music, as with all of riley French’s work is excellent, and the disc comes attached to another oversized glossy card sporting one of Jez’ excellent photos. The real joy here is in the sounds though...if you enjoy a well made set of field recordings simply for what they are- a moment in time captured for later perusal then this CD is a really nice listen. If you are bored wherever you are, or like me sat at home after a dull day, its nice to be able to shut your eyes and find yourself somewhere else.
