Stephen Flinn is a New York-based experimental percussionist-composer-improviser who works with unusual sound sources, including self-made instruments and found objects. He collaborated before with like-minded, innovative sound artists as electronics player Steve Beresford, hyper-pianist Denman Maroney and trumpeter Nate Wooley. «Red Bell» is a solo percussion album, recorded in January 2020 at Full Well, Phoenix, Arizona, and it is the second solo percussion album that Flinn recorded for the Porrtuguese label Creative Sources after «Architect of Adversity» (2008).
Flinn produces highly tangible, percussive sounds and creates unpredictyable dynamics. You can sensei the most physical manner the elasticity and the full resonance of each touch of a skin or metal surface on «Open Window» as its sounds fill the reverbrating space and slowly gains more nuances and shades. This patient method of sculpting and mutating delicate resonant sounds has strong meditative qualities. The following «Breath» focuses on sparse sounds that patiently accumulate into a tense and unsettling texture. «Levels of Sky» suggests a highly resonant drone that slowly gains disturbing nuances and urgent, noisy volume.
«Divulging» creates a fragile and quiet, meditative soundscapes out of gentle rubbing of the skins and bowing metal surfaces. «Seeds and Rain» distills this meditative vein into its bare and almost silent, austere contours. The last piece, «Teacher’s Art» adds an exotic, cermonial-hypnotic dimension, with its pulsating pulse and far-reaching overtones. An impressive conclusion for this immersive listening experience.
Eyal Hareuveni
Stephen Flinn (perc)
