Eshtine

eric pierce

Eric Pierce and I go way back. I "met" him in a music chatroom in 1995. His screen name was "poser" and he was asking people to send him tapes of music they had recorded. He gave his real postal address and promised a tape in return. Intrigued, I copied the address down and wrote to him. We've been exchanging letters, original songs, and mix tapes ever since. Oddly, though we met on the Internet, we've never really done much e-mail corresponding; snail mail has always been our medium.
He sent me a CD of seven new original songs back in April. As soon as I opened the package, I knew I'd want to review it on this weblog. As a result, I didn't actually play the CD until this week. (There's nothing like a homework assignment to inspire procrastination.) As I finally did play it, I sat there murmuring "This is so cool!" happily to myself and occasionally bouncing in my chair.
Sometimes people just surprise you. I knew Eric was a good musician. I have had the rare privilege of watching his talent develop over the years. I have debated with him the merits of formal training vs. the creative benefits of remaining self-taught (an unwinnable argument I've dubbed "Steve Vai vs. the Residents"). I've told him what I've liked and disliked about any number of songs, song fragments and experiments he's sent me. All this has not prepared me for the experience of hearing his latest work.
A song is not a person, but when it's a good song, it's an individual. I've written songs, but they are highly derivative things--I didn't stick to the discipline of the craft long enough to develop a style of my own. What you get from constant practice, writing songs and refining them, is a deep understanding of structure--how to create something with a beginning, middle and end. I remember liking early creations of Eric's but not thinking of them as songs; they lacked this feeling of movement from one place to another. They imparted an interesting mood but they didn't take you anywhere. Now, though, all the pieces are in place. He has his individual voice--I recognize it from all that has come before. He has his song structure--I am particularly enthralled by the endings of these songs, how they wrap up so cleanly and elegantly. He is exploring dynamics, shifts in mood, the tension of delayed reward. In short, he has taken a quantum leap. He has created songs that are--I don't want to say "beyond what I thought he was capable of," because I didn't conceive of any limits for him. Let me suppose instead that these songs may be beyond what Eric thought he was capable of; he is now at a level of expertise where what he creates will take on a life of its own.
He made these songs with computer programs. They sound a bit like the backgrounds for video games--more mechanical than organic, more metallic than earthy. That is not a value judgement; Eric being the child of the computer age that he is, folk songs on vintage guitars would ring false coming from him.
I am not saying that listening to this CD made me feel like I was on a digital landscape. Some people think "electronic music" and think "harsh, uninviting, soulless." Some electronic is that way, it's true, but Eric has not restricted himself to those colors. The first cut, "Penumbravado," marches its theme in deep organ tones. The third, "Erraticat," has a pastoral lightness. (Have I mentioned how much I dig the names of the tracks? There's also "Acclivividity" and "Mellifluid.")
I do have a few quibbles. The drum tracks can sound cheesy, which may be unavoidable in the electronic realm; it's just that there's such an astonishing array of timbres in the melodies and countermelodies that the standard synth disco beat sounds out of place. There may also be less originality than I can tell, since I am not a student of electronic music. I do find the fourth track, "Chimerrant," strangely reminiscent of David Bowie's "I'm Afraid of Americans." Also, I had Pearl Jam's "WMA" stuck in my head after the first couple of listens all the way through. I can't pinpoint which track may have conjured it.
The CD says these are "Works in Progress." They certainly are. They are tracing the path of a remarkable progression upward, and I hope the next songs are flung even higher.