Hutchinson, Hal

Hutchinson, Hal

Wreckage Installations & Metalworks

Crucial Blast

Few contemporary noise artists have explored the sonic qualities of scrap metal to the extent that Hal Hutchinson has with his “Factory of Metal Sound” aesthetic. The dense, brutally forceful metalscapes this UK noisemaker crafts follow a tradition of metal manipulation previously examined by Japanese noisician K2 and Canadian artist Alan Bloor (a.k.a. Knurl), but Hutchinson employs a unique approach to assembling and layering his recordings of chains, pipes, sheet metal, metal barrels, and other metallic objects being smashed and dragged and beaten. A cacophony of skull-scraping clatter is transformed into something far more complex, as his “Factory” method blends these sounds together into a strangely structured colossus of entropic industrial pandemonium. With the new full-length collection Wreckage Installations & Metalworks, Hutchinson delivers seven immense noisescapes and blasts of orchestrated machine-shop annihilation. It’s intensely abrasive, comparable to Molekular Terrorism-era K2, but stripped down to the sound of pure metal; attentive listening yields a haunting, undefinable element found beneath the more abrasive layers of crashing junk scrap. These repetitive scraping tones take on an eerie, accidentally melodic quality, as the mountains of scrap metal and heavy chains slowly shift and crumble, forming subliminal patterns. Along with the CD, Wreckage Installations includes a booklet with liner notes that examine the creative process behind these recordings, and a set of six double-sided black-and-white photo prints depicting Hutchinson’s stark, high-contrast images of corroded, hulking factory equipment. Released as part of the Crucial Blaze series.