Review by “Arlequins” Giovanni Carta
Translated by Gaetano Fontanazza

James Clark Combs is a young music composer from Seattle committed to electronic and electroacoustic music. He especially prefers field recording procession and manipulation of extemporary material. This kind of approach generally leads to improvised, free-form music, but in this case leads to structured compositions where we find a clear vision and a musical path. “Safe Passage” takes its inspiration from an event founded by Combs in Spring 2009 called “ImprovFriday“. This music happening takes place each week. Here Combs joins other improvisers and sound sculptors to share each others music through a series of performances. The tracks on this CD come from these “ImprovFriday” sessions. They have been edited as a soundtrack for two different stories, each one divided into five compositions: “Rikke’s Harbor” and “The Giant Eye Of The 5th Dimension.” “Rikke’s Harbor” is an abandoned shipyard located at the World’s End where many visitors come from several countries, sometimes falling to the abyssal waves of another dimension. In “The Giant Eye Of The 5th Dimension”, a deity called “The Giant Eye” sometimes passes through the veil that envelops him and casts his judgment upon the whole space-time continuum. This CD production is not only connected with Artemiy Artemiev’s label, in effect the cinematographic atmospheres evoked from this unusual sound collage are much closer to the Tarkovsky avant-garde than to that of simple sci-fi entertainment.  J.C. Combs’ music acquires poetic and metaphysical meanings of a reliable value, suggested by the sound frame sequence that can transform apparently peaceful, familiar situations into something disturbing and obscure. In this CD it is clear that musicality is minimized because “Safe Passage” is made by sonic collages of field recordings, soundscapes, musique concrète and occasional cryptic ambient openings. The short CD length, less than 40 minutes, makes the listening experience not particularly heavy. The charm of such a unique and out-of-the-boundaries work leads us to replay it many times in order to activate our imagination toward the strange dimensions created by J.C. Combs.

James Clark Combs è un giovane compositore di Seattle attivo nel campo della musica elettronica elettroacustica, con una particolare predisposizione verso l’elaborazione dei fields recordings e l’utilizzo di materiale estemporaneo, una predisposizione che in generale può portare spesso verso l’improvvisazione free-form ma che in questo caso si esprime in una serie di composizioni piuttosto articolate e funzionali ad una ben precisa visione e direzione musicale. “Safe Passage” prende spunto da un evento fondato dallo stesso Combs nella primavera del 2009, “ImprovFriday”, un avvenimento musicale che si ripete periodicamente ogni settimana in cui Combs si riunisce insieme ad altri musicisti-improvvisatori e scultori sonori per condividere e mettere in pratica la propria musica attraverso una serie di esibizioni ; i brani presenti in questo cd provengono dunque dalle sessions “ImprovFriday”, per questa occasione organizzate e strutturate come una sorta di colonna sonora per due storie distinte, divise ciascuna in cinque composizioni, “Rikke’s Harbor” e “The Giant Eye Of The 5th Dimension”. “Rikke’s Harbor” è un cantiere navale abbandonato sui confini del mondo in cui giungono visitatori da tutto il mondo, talvolta per perdersi nei flutti abissali di un’altra dimensione, mentre in “The Giant Eye Of The 5th Dimension” una divinità (The Giant Eye) riesce ad oltrepassare periodicamente il velo dimensionale che l’avvolge per espandere il suo giudizio sull’intero spazio-tempo. Le connessioni con l’etichetta di Artemiy Artemiev non sembrano limitarsi alla semplice produzione del cd, in effetti le atmosfere cinematografiche evocate da questo singolare collage sonoro sembrano decisamente più vicine all’avanguardia di un Tarkovsky piuttosto che alla semplice fantascienza d’intrattenimento, la musica di J.C. Combs assume significati poetici e metafisici di un certo valore, suggeriti da una sequenza di frammenti sonori che tramutano delle situazioni familiari ed apparentemente serene in qualcosa di inquietante e indecifrabile. Sia chiaro che la musicalità di questo cd è ridotta ai minimi termini in quanto “Safe Passage” è composto da collage sonori di registrazioni all’aperto, soundscapes, musica concreta e sporadiche aperture ambientali decisamente criptiche… la relativa breve durata del cd, neanche quaranta minuti, fa comunque in modo che l’ascolto non sia particolarmente pesante, anzi, il fascino di un lavoro così peculiare e fuori dalla norma ci spinge verso ripetuti ascolti fino a lasciarci andare con l’immaginazione verso le strane dimensioni evocate da J.C. Combs…

Here is another review for “Safe Passage,” from Borderland UK

I’m not actually sure whether Safe Passage is music as we know it. The ten tracks on the album are soundscapes made up of location recordings, special effects, editing and audio treatments. Having said that I found the album a fascinating document of modern life and the systems that cocoon us throughout it. J.C.Combs is more of an audio sculpturist, and I imagine that these ten tracks work best in a museum or exhibition space with some sort of corresponding video accompaniment. While listening to the CD I was reminded constantly of the old BBC Radiophonic and Sound Effect library discs that were so popular back in the 70s and 80s. But in this instance the sounds have been collated to tell a story or create an image in your head. Many of the tracks are quite short, sort of fragments caught on the ether, while others are longer and have more substance – some even have a psychedelic hue to them. A central core that runs throughout are the sounds of the city and that of the transit systems carrying people through its veins. Track titles include Rikke’s Harbor, Cross Station, Dispatch, November 13, 2009, Abysmal, The Giant Eye of the 5th Dimension, X503, Unrelated, Safe Passage and Trinity 666 – The Last Train To Hell. I find myself playing Safe Passage quite frequently, hearing new sounds and collages with each listen. This is the soundtrack to exactly what I am not sure, but working out that is part of the fun of this album.