Ritger, Carl: The Measures CS

"How does one listen to the ocean or look into a coming fog with any predictability or sense of measure? Is it foolish to quantify and attempt to time what happens in nature and how we observe it? Carl Ritger believes it futile. The Measures title refers to the R Murray Schafer essay on soundscapes and our inability to tune and anticipate what will happen next, sonically and visually, in nature. Similarly, Ritger’s two long-form pieces develop on anticipation that can change at little notice. When I personally heard the material first performed live at the Great Circles event in partnership with enmossed in 2021, the music changed moment to moment from natural atmosphere to chittering electronics within minutes and seconds. Dizzying as it was (perhaps because of the oppressive heat), it made for a synesthesia of muted landscapes, hidden behind a smoke of gothic motifs. Ritger himself said that the sound hearkens to writers like Mary Shelley and the half-darkness her language imbues. It has taken 4 years to realize this album, with ongoing conversations between myself, Carl, and Glyn Maier. As is often the case, you try to time things to perfection. If we have learned anything from the measures of nature and the process of this album, timing is never on your side."