Composer/performer/instrument designer Smith’s exotic compositional textures here utilize the same unique instruments that he employed on his popular earlier recording Nikko Wolverine. These include resonators...

Composer/performer/instrument designer Smith’s exotic compositional textures here utilize the same unique instruments that he employed on his popular earlier recording Nikko Wolverine. These include resonators that sprout bowed and struck rods; large, clangorous titanium sculptures; and vibraphone-like arrays of metal plates. The music plays with the listener’s perceived sense of time as spare moments slowly drift into dense ones. Fanfare magazine wrote, “The sounds seem to go on to the brink of forever…. Aluminum Overcast is practically tactile as it presents its edges, both dull and razor-sharp, to the listener…. Smith’s instruments were born, I gather, in the welder’s flame and under the blows of a hammer…and the music they make, which can become Wagnerian in intensity, bears witness to their violent birth. And yet, like heated metal, there is a softer, more yielding side to Smith’s music…. Aluminum Overcast is a buzz that becomes a burr, and a burr that becomes a shower of sparks. The density of the music fluctuates, but it remains consistently involving.” And All-Music Guide wrote, “Some artists have a signature sound. Then again some inhabit a sonic realm that is their own. Visiting Chas Smith’s realm tends to be an unforgettable experience…. Smith hears beautiful overtones in his creations and he communicates them wonderfully. His soundscapes are engaging… haunting like Ligeti’s best works…. Careful listening reveals worlds within worlds of sounds where metal becomes an organic entity…. Strongly recommended.”