"Stephan Mathieu is a sound artist working mostly with obsolete media, and within the curtains of A Static Place, he morphs a few classical 78s into a drone masterwork with a much more wooden — as in rich mahogany, not cheap fiber-whatever; as in "authentic" and smooth — feel than is the custom for the genre. It’s tingly and hushed, like a cymbal being hit by a flattened-out brush with a sock over it, just barely hovering above silence and letting the ear pick out the slight tonal variations and gradual lifts that pull on the stomach like a plane taking off but extended by about 20 minutes per each side of this 2xLP. It’s a meditation that revels in an almost sacred state of stasis, like the ghost of a Lieven Martens composition haunting a Stars Of The Lid album telling a Riceboy Sleeps yarn heard from a few blocks away (in heaven?). Pulses throb and dip in and out of static nothingness, post-pinball twiddles of noise, barely even audible, dress the fringes, and the ear is left with a vague recollection of what just happened. Also, note to serious listeners: You have to jack this recording up like a bag of tangy-cock tortilla chips, because the subtleties might be missed on your turntable. A Static Place will be a giant leap for most listeners and the perfect prize for the fervent few. From the fuzzy, hazy fold-out jacket to the foamy-white vinyl, the project finds Mathieu in complete command of his audio and visual aesthetic. This record will occupy a distinct place on your shelf/mental reference desk (if you follow me), which means more than you might think in this age of profound progress and befuddling regression."

"Stephan Mathieu brings such an inimitable touch to every project he tackles, it almost doesn't matter what the source material is that he's working with. For this latest 12k collection, the self-taught electro-acoustic sound sculptor played back some of his own 78rpm records (of recordings made between 1928-32 of music from the late Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque eras) using two mechanical acoustic gramophones and then, with the playback having been transferred from a pair of customized microphones to his computer, further manipulated the material using spectral analysis and convolution processes. So while the source sounds for the hour-long A Static Place are period instruments such as the clavichord, viol, lute, and hurdy-gurdy, the album's five pieces bear little resemblance to the sounds preserved in those 78s. Admittedly, one could perhaps trace a connection from the tonalities produced by the earlier instruments to the ebbing and flowing tones on the album, but the drone clouds that dominate the release loosen the ties between the finished material and the source elements. Suffused with a warm and sunlit glow, “Schwarzschild Radius” rolls out a huge ball of soft static within which tones pulsate and intermingle. A lulling flow of metallic slivers accompanies a blossoming shimmer of muted horn tones in “Minuet” until a gauzy paradise of some idealized kind is suggested. A noticeable shift takes place in the album's closing piece, “Dawn,” when what appear to be cymbal splashes appear as percussive accompaniment to the neon-lit tones that billow above. It's worth noting that Mathieu takes the road less travelled, as it were, with respect to his handling of vinyl; aside from thick streams of hiss that appear in each piece, little evidence of the vinyl source is audible so none of the usual signifiers, such as pops, crackle, and evidence of a needle gouging out a groove, surface. Such rough edges are smoothed out in the album's settings, and what we're left with are gently unfurling masses that more soothe than disturb."

"As expected, outstanding audio here from Mr Mathieu, created using early 78rpm records, mechanical-acoustic gramophones and computers. Based on that kind of setup, an affinity with the work of Philip Jeck would be a fair assumption and also correct as in many ways 'A Static Place' evokes similar abstract dream-lands to that of Jeck's. The result of Mathieu's process though is not as raw as Lord Jeck's, probably due to the post production and spectral analysis through the additional computer processes. However he doesn't clean things up entirely, leaving a certain amount of vinyl hiss in the mix. The sounds he achieves feel somehow comforting and familiar; blissed acousmatic soundscapes that retain an emotional depth and richness that could not have happened by mere chance. Although I'm sure the techniques used often result in happy accidents, there is a craftsmanship and skill evident in translating the raw material into something new and emotionally resonant. Those that enjoy stuff by Lawrence English, Simon Scott, The Caretaker, David Tagg, Rafael Toral, William Basinski etc. Should easily find some pleasurable listening from the lush aural tapestries of 'A Static Place'."

"German based electro-acoustic artist Stephan Mathieu has been relatively prolific in releasing works over the past ten years, either by himself under his own name, or in collaboration with other artists such as Janek Schaefer, John Hudak, Ekkehard Ehlers and Taylor Deupree. Seemingly without an allegiance to one single label, Mathieu has released on an equally long list of labels such as Orthlorng Musork, Cronica, Spekk and Line amongst others. 'A Static Place' adds Taylor Deupree's 12K to this ever growing list. The first track, named after the theory 'The Schwarzchild Radius' is one which holds true throughout the entirety of this album. Defined as an “astronomical object has been so compressed on itself, it becomes a black hole”, under these conditions the object has an enormous gravitational force acting upon it which nothing can escape from, not even light. Mathieu doesn't just use this physics theory to add context and gravitas to the piece, it is as if the concept as been applied to the creative process. There is a clarity and cleanness to each track, be that through the production or whatever, these processed sounds, are indeed heavily processed as if under the immense weight of gravity. You can almost hear the compression of the sound waves piling on top of each other, eminating from the speakers in compressed layers. Mathieu himself says about the work "A Static Place is about the journey of sound". This premise is realised throughout the album. You can expect slowly emerging sounds breathing in and out, a multicoloured spectrum of refracted white light. 'A Static Place I' and II are separated by 'Minuet', which describes this refraction perfectly. We also pass through moments of unease, where the pressurisation mounts to unbearable degrees before moving further along the journey. Mathieu's 2005 collaboration with Taylor Deupree 'Transcriptions' featured field recordings, noise, clutter and interference, and in this sense 'A Static Places' marks a different approach for the artist and an all together different resulting sound. There is a considerable difference to other 12K artists also, and where there may be similarities at points with Murralin Lane's haunting choir of ghosts, the album's atom sized granularity is a step away from the grainy textures of Marcus Fischer, Taylor Deupree and others. An exceptionally refined work, 'A Static Place' is a treat for any fan of microsounds, 12K and experimental music in general."

"Sourced from a mic’d gramophone playing 78rpm records from 1928 to 1932 with a cactus needle for a stylus, A Static Place has the more urgent, dynamic feeling to it. There is heavy use of hissing and layers of analog static to be heard on "Schwarzschild Radius", but it is used sparingly, burying processed choral arrangements and organ passages in its fuzzy warmth. Vinyl surface noise is a bit played out in my opinion, which is why this disc excels in its measured approach to using it. There is far more overt use of the musical elements of the source material in the beautiful waves of sound, with the various forms of digital processing transforming, but not destroying, the music its created from. The two part title track clearly demonstrates this, with glistening, soaring melodies being teased out of the ancient vinyl, juxtaposing melody and texture, almost mimicking a journey through arid deserts and claustrophobic caves. The second part includes what must be piano tones and orchestra-like outbursts in its long journey. "Dawn" seems to take even more of its source material to heart, intertwining jazzy melodies over what resembles rattling metal to create a slow piece that carries its beauty all the way to the final moments of the album. All five of the pieces display Mathieu's balanced hand in reshaping existing sound into beautiful new worlds. Probably due to their similar approach, I felt some parallels to Philip Jeck's work with turntables, but Mathieu is a singular artist that really sounds like no one else."

"Saarbrücken, Germany-based musician and sound artist Stephan Mathieu has performed his music throughout the world and created various audio installations for the most part of the last twenty years… Since 2000, he has released more than 30 records both solo and in collaboration, on electronic labels such as Ritornell, BiP_HOp and Spekk. Evolving all the time, his recent works have been based on early instruments, environmental sounds and obsolete media, which are transformed and recontextualised by spectral analysis and convolution processes. For his new release A Static Place on 12k, Stephan Mathieu used 78 rpm records of music from the late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque era, recorded between 1928 and 1932, which he played back with two mechanical acoustic gramophones, equipped with cactus needles. Then, he captured those fragile recordings directly from the gramophones horn and processed them using the aforementioned techniques to create a work where different musical and technological eras coalescence into new shapes and forms. Schwarzschild Radius is a slow introduction to Mathieu’s world of sound where a bed of white noise nicely cushions processed period instruments that drift in and out of focus and give the impression of observing a miniature orchestra trapped in an iridescent glass ball. As the track progresses, the ball is observed from different angles, letting the light bounce off its surface and revealing minute details of an oneiric rehearsal. When A Static Place Ia kicks in, the near pastoral feel of this first track is gone, leaving a much darker intertwined series of drone-loops building up and vanishing into the aural aether. It is as if Mathieu had created poles of attraction towards which shadows of instruments were collapsing, swallowed by sonic black holes. Here there is a true physicality to the music which constantly mutates throughout the piece, and the different micro-movements that fold into each other give the impression of moving through sound, allowing the listener to observe something close to the essence of music. Following this ominous piece, Mathieu releases the tension and re-creates a slowed-down minuet, whose period instruments are diffused in a kind of aural halation. The apparent calmness of the piece is contrasted by looped and processed strings tucked skillfully at the far-end of the speaker cones, asking the listener to come closer and listen below the surface, creating a shadow-box effect of immense depth. A Static Place II, a piece of beautiful immersive character explores a sort of visceral anxiety, inciding nicely through the preceding quietude. As before, there are push and pull tensions at play, but in a more forceful way yet avoiding unnecessary drama. Giant waves of foghorn-like instruments crash against beds of stretched cymbals and static haze. If period instruments serve as the sonic fabric of Mathieu’s works, their identity here are completely removed, just leaving an aural signature not really related to the space explored but adding a intricate complexity to the piece. The pace at which the compositions move is majestically controlled and feels completely organic as if echoing the breathing of a primal beast. Mathieu taps deeply into the listener’s emotional world, and manipulates this magnificent 20-minute piece, both exhausted and transformed. The closer track Dawn is a much easier and lighter affair, where jazz-infused and spectrally deconstructed layers of sounds are covered by Mathieu’s electronic diaphanous veil. A veil being slowly lifted to give a much needed clarity, as a way of ending this wonderful journey. The project is an interesting release for 12k, as the album somehow departs stylically from the beautiful roster of organic electronic/acoustic hybrids released recently on the label. Nevertheless, the philosophy at work here is perfectly in line with Taylor Deupree’s willingness to “explore sound as art, as a physical phenomenon – with emotion”. Stephan Mathieu’s latest work occupies a very unusual space yet fits perfectly into the label’s constantly changing aesthetic. Highly recommended!"

"Stephan Mathieu presents his long awaited new album, this time for 12k. Accompanying the 'Remain' album for Line, also out this week, 'A Static Place' more or less defines the phrase "travelling without moving" in sublime style, placing the listener at the epicentre of a deeply affecting electro-acoustic soundscape. To paint this vivid imagery Stephan plays ancient 78rpm recordings of music fromt he late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque era through two mechanical acoustic HMV Model 102 gramophones and records their output with a pair of customized mics. These sounds are then transformed into the blissed aural catharsis you hear through spectral analysis and convolution processes. To the untrained ear the academic stuff is just that, while the music is simply of the most arresting, awe-inspiring nature, similar in some respects to the work of Philip Jeck or the Caretaker but with an intensely detailed adroitness that's unmistakably Mathieu. Essentially we're listening to the resonance of archaic instruments played long time ago, structured into esoteric shapes and gaseous forms the likes of which their original creators could barely fathom, but would still recognise as the beautifully alien sounds they are. Highly Recommended."

"Phonograph records ceased decades ago to be purely a means of musical reproduction. Christian Marclay’s Frankenstein platters, broken and reassembled, Jam-Master Jay’s twin Technics 1200s, and John Cage’s Imaginary Landscape No. 1 do so in very different ways, but each makes the spinning platter a creative, rather than merely reproductive, voice. German artist Stephan Mathieu, long a dedicated collector of 78rpm records and alchemist of found sound, adds yet another branch to this already expansive tree via his work in the transformation of old into new, sculpting the music of the past into the new forms of the present. A Static Place, Mathieu’s most recent release, puts the turntables at the beginning of the creative process; the genesis of the music is simply the playing of the records in real time, albeit via unconventional means. Mathieu culls the sound the old-fashioned way, with cactus needles on a pair of 1930’s-era portable wind-up Gramophones. But as soon as the sound waves hit the air, they’re brought rudely into the 21st century, as the source material is captured by a pair of microphones and digitally manipulated by Mathieu’s computer. The Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque strains, played largely on obsolete instruments, are reconstituted as ambient streams of tones and textures via the use of spectral analysis and convolution. Mathieu isn’t as interested in the physicality of the platters as artists like Marclay and Philip Jeck, and A Static Place expunges almost wholly the snaps, cracks and pops that are often on display (typically to a fetishizing degree) when using records this old. The tonal qualities of the original performances are most of what survives, carried over through the conversion process and reincarnated as the beautiful, ghostly quintet of tracks that make up A Static Place. There’s no shame in finding A Static Place to be, primarily, a pretty album. Its gentle pacing and the interweaving of soft-edged tones results in a milky mix of overlaid sound, like lighting gels or colored sheets of tissue combined in a dynamic display of additive color creation. But as with almost any worthwhile music of this ilk, the real rewards are in the details. Mathieu’s best compositions are those that rely not just on the interplay of swelling and receding sounds, but a more suggestive synthesis, something more complex than a Calgon-inspired transport or blissful new age glow. “Minuet” is a multi-layered sonic ecosystem: like a rain forest, its seemingly uninterrupted canopy belies the activity below. On this and other tracks, instruments can be heard speaking through from the other side, though it’s unclear whether one is hearing remnants of the source material that have survived Mathieu’s mutations, or if it’s instead the synthetically suggested sounds of strings and horns produced by the processing of Mathieu’s trusty computer. “Dawn,” the album’s richest composition, evokes a mysterious mournfulness, like a jumbled and abstracted rendition of Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtrack for Twin Peaks, complete with a mixed-up doppelganger for the soundtrack’s crisply cool brushed percussion. Whether it’s conscious or not, musicians almost inevitably rely on favorite songs and sounds for inspiration or imitation in the creation of their own music. Some do so more transparently than others, but there are few musicians who’d aver that they make their music in vacuum, apart from the influence of those who preceded and surround them. Stephan Mathieu has delved deep into his record collection to make A Static Place, but done so in a much more literal fashion than most, and whether or not the listener can identify a single instrument in the final product, much less a particular tune, Mathieu has made an unusual entry into the unending cycle of influence, reaction and borrowing in which records have played such a vital role."