Two hands. Ten fingers. No overdubs. Michael Manring---Soliloquy
Written: May 09 '05 (Updated Dec 20 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: Amazing what two hands and ten fingers can do.
Cons: Not for the faint of possibility.
The Bottom Line: Soliloquy truly is a remarkable album; one that transcends the audience's expectation and experience of the bass. Otherworldy, ethereal, yet strangely inviting.
MiDoyle's Full Review: Soliloquy [Digipak] * by Michael Manring
Two hands. Ten fingers. No overdubs.
Bassist Michael Manring writes in the Extended Notes to his new release Soliloquy [2005 Manthing Music], that he conceptualized the album around the idea of solitude for a number of reasons:
“Solitude is a unique state for us---one in which we are compelled to honesty. It is perhaps the most basic fact of human existence, and yet there’s something mysterious about it. The self is all we truly know, and yet I’m not sure that the self is ever fully knowable.”
And, as a professional musician who does most of work solo, performing on stage, traveling, practicing, composing, etc., Manring has spent a lot of time just considering his own self and solitude. Also, he was intrigued by the idea of doing a truly solo album; just him and his basses, space and sound.
Soliloquy largely succeeds at Manring's intent: an exploration of space and sound within the environment of the solo bass that envelopes the listener within.
Manring uses a number of specially designed basses in his work (Hyperbass, Hyperbass/Hybrid, 5-string acoustic bass, 10-string prototype, and the vb-4 prototype. Each bass has its own sound rewards and colors and the result is an album with which Manring seeks to establish and explore different “tones” throughout.
“I’m fascinated by the enormous wealth of timbre the bass has to offer and I hoped to capture a bit of its versatility on this disc. I wanted each piece to have its own sonic world...”
By using his mix of fretless and fretted basses, alternate tunings, special microphone staging, different pickups, an E-bow, judicious use of reverb, and other studio sound techniques, Manring has gone for what he describes as trying ”to obtain the same kind of sonic space that solo recordings of acoustic instruments have.” He states he was trying to counteract the normally one-dimensional sound of the bass by trying to pick up the “sound” around the bass itself, to add a spatial element to his music.
On one track When We Sleep On this Earth, he avoids touching the strings. Instead, he drums a pattern a pattern on the body of the bass with his fingers, allowing the sound to emanate from the vibration of the strings in response to the drumming.
On other tracks he traces his inspiration to philosophy, poetry, mythology, movies, his personal history, Walden, and other reference points in his mind. The result is that by basing it on Manring’s own internal dialog, he invokes a corresponding dialog in the listener.
Beyond, the “Wow, how did he’d do that,” this album strikes me as kind of an existentialist listening experience. It’s the kind of record that has to be heard to be appreciated for what it is---a kind of unself-conscious look at the self through a musical prism.
For all the "head scratching" that kind of description can invoke, it's that kind of album to me. It has to be experienced individually for full effect as I imagine each listener will take something else out of the experience. That is to say, I highly recommend it (four stars), especially for fans of musical journeys with plenty of left turns as opposed to knowing exactly where you’re going.
Tracks
1. Helios
2. Excuse Me, Mr. Manring
3. Solipsism
4. I Left America
5. Greetings, Eathlings!
6. Makes Perfect Sense to Me
7. The Light Which Puts Out Our Eyes
8. A Morning Star
9. Selene (live)
10. Dabuda’s Memory
11. When We Were Asleep in the Earth
12. The Orffyreus Wheel
13. Insomnia Lessons
14. Come With Me, My Love
Total: 52:02: All tracks, written, performed and produced by Manring in real-time with no overdubs. "Selene" is a live performance recording.
Granted, the prospect of a solo bass album is not one for every listener’s auditory pleasure zone. But aside from that, the ability of Manring (and others like him) to take the bass out of the complementary sound framework listeners and critics (and other musicians) put it into and, instead, strive to bring it out into the open using a more complex and contextual sound environment can only help the bass bridge the audience's expectation gap further.
Soliloquy is a remarkable album on that level; one that transcends the audience’s expectation and experience of the bass. It sounds otherworldly, yet for all its etherealness and studio sound sterility, the environment is also strangely inviting. For a meditation on solitude, Manring also makes Soliloquy surprisingly about connection as well.
“The connection between solitude and companionship is the strongest impression I can take away from this experience. I have come to understand how, when we set out to do something alone, we are in actuality making a statement about all the people who have become important in our lives ...”
Sources
www.manthing.com, www.cdbaby.com, www.allmusic.com, www.zonguitars.com
SoliloquyExtended Notes by Michael Manring. The Enchanced-CD content includes Manring’s extensive notes and overview of the album and two Quicktime videos for “A Morning Star” and “Diagonal Head Trauma.”
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