While
the sound on “A Portrait of Nothing” can be described on various levels, what I
truly find interesting about this cassette title is an experience I recently
had with my nephew. I was taking
pictures of him with my phone, and he decided he wanted to take pictures of
himself. This lead to him taking a
number of close up shots of his hand, and then eventually it came out as
nothing but a black image. It was, as he
showed it to everyone to see, a picture of nothing. Funny how life reflects art sometimes and all
that.
The
music by Balcony View on this tape is mainly synth, but in that somber and
mellow sort of tone. Really, the tone is
what sets the entire pacing of this cassette, as even when it picks up the pace
and ventures closer to FNL, it still has very serious undertones.
I
wouldn’t exactly call this a portrayal of life, in the sense that we all come
from nothing, die and then return to nothing; though that is an underlying
theme I could see someone taking out of this. I only feel like it is
coincidental that the word I like to relate to this in terms of the seriousness
of it is that it seems very grave.
You
really are able to take from this cassette what you will, and that is the great
thing about it. In that respect, it
reminds me of the picture my nephew took because it wasn’t really nothing it
was more open to interpretation or left to the imagination.
what the ****
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