By Mita Tate
Listening to IDM artist Theodore’s A Summer She Has Never Been, A Winter She Fears evokes precious childhood memories by the beach, building sandcastles only to be swept away by the current of the ocean traveling endlessly into the far off distance.
Little information about Theodore is available, other than he is a sound sculptor hailing from Greece. Theodore lets the music speak for itself: lush organic sounds of nature and ambience juxtaposed with spectral, microtonal electronic compositions.
The precious tinker-toy treasures are similar to Lullatone and Toychestra, two artists known for creating delicate lullabies using mostly simple children’s toys.
The album opens with “I Dreamt I Was Throwing Stones At The Sea,” a beautiful, dreamlike song filled with field recordings of waves drifting in and out along with the faint, bittersweet melody from “Music Of The Night” from “Phantom Of The Opera.”
“She Speaks Mellifluously Of Kings And Poets” is so clear in its approach, you can actually imagine Theodore sitting in an open field by the lake meticulously creating the subtle, little melodies as the wind blows through the chimes in the distance.
“Montmarte” is quite a departure from the previous seven tracks, as it introduces an overbearing accordian which doesn’t seem to quite fit into the mix, and will leave listener’s baffled as to the intentions of this particular track. The same happens with “Quand On Arrive En Ville,” a strange track consisting of a young girl singing in Greek, completely out of sync with the backing music.
The element of ambient minimalist drone that Theodore incorporates into his compositions isn’t nearly as heavy as anything found on The Hototogisu’s Cuckoo Cloudland or as light as Gas’ Pop. It seems to fall somewhere in between The Hafler Trio and Phill Niblock, so much that when watched alongside of Niblock’s visual, experimental masterpiece The Movement Of People Working, A Summer She Has Never Been, A Winter She Fears works even better than Niblock’s own creations.
Sadly Theodore’s masterpiece will most likely go completely unnoticed by even elitists seeking out only the most obscure music, but in a perfect world, A Summer She Has Never Been, A Winter She Fears could possibly be seen as a focal point and major stepping stone in the genre of organic ambience and IDM.