Prada & Oregon’s His Past Heaven-Floor Permanent’s – Her Lufa feels like a dissection of some past event or life, a postmortem on a relationship; time to put on the surgical mask and gown and figure out why this died. The music, created by Susan Balmar, is composed of tape loops being played over, around, and under each other. It is, in the most literal sense, a collage work and it sounds it; distorted found-sounds meshing with aged electronics to create an impression of lost time and melancholy, anchored to memory. The second side of the tape, entitled “Everything Turning into a 5L bottle of PVA,” introduces a distinct element of pain: what sounds like a distorted band-saw cuts through the majority of the track, blending with indistinct gongs and distant wind to create an uncomfortable contrast of tension and serenity. Eventually it all focuses to almost symphonic and seemingly joyous clarity, while never losing that uncomfortable edge. All of it falls apart again, and pieces itself back together, cycling in and out of stability. What’s left behind are impressions and questions:
Do home videos, scrap-books, photo albums and the other mementos we keep actually shed any light onto our pasts? When we look back on these things do they serve to sustain an idyllic illusion or illuminate some previously unrecognized truths? How can one be expected to unearth truth from something that is no longer present, that cannot be touched, held or questioned? Once something is gone, can we ever be sure if it was really there in the first place?
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