This year, as a tribute to the departed original Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan, Whitman released a huge meta version of the cultural monolith Albatross – as his Albatross (Blend) from the single, through live versions, slowly eroding the entire composition in echo over its 2.5 hours. Another piece that you can’t help but be amazed at the simple conceptual strategy that becomes soaringly beautiful and effecting. Gentle electronic treatments outlining a soul.
Revisiting his works on the back of this piece continues to be a stunning adventure. The strobe light of Generators, the warm beauty of Playthroughs and thoughtful sound marriages of Multiples to name a few. But the 2006 live ep Lisbon outlines as exhilarating dynamic journey through sound as an essential instalment in his huge discography. The piece sits neatly as a single 42 minutes and opens out wonderfully like it’s another beautiful heady drone.
But this is no drone, the incessant chirping high frequency chatter is by 7 minutes in overlaid with a huge bassy rippling background as it becomes clear the piece is an elegant exercise in continually inventive, third eye opening, transitions.
The whole thing unfolds like a fly through of the cursive typography of the huge ‘L’ on the sleeve. Lisbon starts as a seeming simple sound source but arcs, twists and embellishes itself throughout its hugely entertaining duration.
Lisbon is just an arbitrary choice of entry points to Fullerton Whitman’s art, they are all hugely recommended…
Lisbon is available here
obladada.com 
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