Richard Chartier’s sound installation and recorded pieces evoke a state of aural awareness. Working with a variety of minimal structures and refined sound sources, Chartier has been responsible for some of the most austere audio works of recent years. Aesthetically refined and creatively provocative much of his work has focused on the edges of perception, both in frequency range and amplitude. On Current, his latest work to be released in conjunction with his performances in Australia and Japan in late 2006, Chartier offers a multilayered sound field. Shimmering high tones filter amid a clouded layer of dense audio mist – across the 20 minutes, he creates a potent journey through crisp yet warm sound textures, metered pulses and spacious stereo field. The piece is thematically linked to the idea of travel by airplane - the disassociation of time and location – air currents above and the oceanic currents below.
