see also here
Aguirre reissues two sets of contrasting recordings by interdisciplinary artist/composer, Maggi Payne, which taken together provide an insight into Payne's broad artistic application.
Though originally officially released first, Arctic Winds is the more recent set of recordings, a dense, often punishing collection of electroacoustic compositions and field recordings inspired by the titular namesake. If you're looking for modern comparisons, the icy, foreboding static atmospheres of the title track and Surface Tension approach similar terrain (albeit from a different direction) to that covered by Aaron Dilloway when in more restrained mood, while the minimal isolationist sound of Apparent Horizon made me think of Cast of Mind period Kali Malone in its conjuring of lonely, terrible landscapes.
Ahh-Ahh is a slightly different beast and is less tied to any overriding conceptual foundation, and as such allows Payne to roam around her sound. Recorded in the mid 80s whilst Payne was a part of the Lovely Music stable (Robert Ashley, David Behrman), the six tracks were all composed on an Apple II using early sampling technology, and trace a wavy line through early experimental electronics. Sometimes ambient/minimal, at other times propulsive, Payne always shows herself to be a master of composition, knowing instinctively when to either shift pace or stick to the Cage-ian principle of repetition repetition repetition (and now what we might see as the central tenet of drone). The opening pairing of Flights of Fancy and Gamelan are among the best music i've heard this year, the former an Edgar Frose like ascension to the astral plane, the latter a percussive beast of Reichian wonder full of movement and transcendent energy. Aguirre does it again!
