The short story:
Archival1991 consists of a single new 47-minute work based on two old pieces from 1991. The long story: you have to realize that back in 1991
Richard Chartier was not the lowercase advocate that he became later in the decade. Instead of luminous, Spartan sound architectures, he was recording gloomy, dense drones. And
Archival1991 not only draws from that material (produced at the time with analog and digital synthesizers), it respects the aesthetics
Chartier was fond of at the time. Therefore the piece comes much closer to
Organum,
John Duncan (in his louder self), the post-industrial cassette underground of the early '90s, and the material typically released by Drone Records than any of
Chartier's albums of the late '90s and early 2000s. Based on figures of repetition and accretion, the drone changes constantly without changing significantly, the biggest transformations being discernible at the edges of the stereo spectrum, while the sonic core remains immutable. The vortex revolves slowly, disquieting in its presence, but not quite menacing since it remains rather static. It's like looking straight into the abyss from a safe distance. The piece says all it had to say in 30 minutes, but the last 17 minutes are not aggravating. ~ François Couture