The Oansome Orbit is the latest work from Australia’s electronic godfather Pimmon (known to friends as Paul Gough). Over the past decade and a half, Pimmon has carved out a unique space for himself amidst through producing a series of masterfully executed excursions into abstract electronic sound. With this new edition, he strikes out at some of his most harmonic territory to date, merging washes of rich tone against irregular grids of texture. The results are wholly individual and utterly consuming.
From Pimmon:
“Thats why I finely come to writing all this down. Thinking on what the idear of us myt be. Thinking on that thing whats in us lorn and loan and oansome.” from Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker.
The Oansome Orbit is about connection and disconnection. In playing with micro loops of sound - macro listening worlds are made; universes of white noise wash, blurry melancholic tones, jagged granular debris. As all these seemlingly disconnected sounds orbit each other, often I feel transported to somewhere vast - distant - majestic; yet in the process I feel a great sense of loss, being "oansome".
While recording the works for The Oansome Orbit I was struck by the words of author Russell Hoban. His worlds are bleak and dark, funny and imaginative. His characters are scared and scarred. In Riddley Walker, he created a composite apocalyptic language - a pigeon English where unfamiliar words are made familiar by context alone. Oansome is one such word.
It conjures a forlorn aloneness. In a world more connected than ever before, the sense of iso- lation looms larger. I often feel at my most "oansome" when in a room full of people.The mu- sic contained in Oansome Orbit is my exploration of this juxtaposition.
This album is dedicated to Broadcaster Tony Barrell. Tony was a lover of sound and noise. His work has inspired many including me. His great skill as a producer was coupled with a life long passion for music. He was able to weave wisps of words and other aural delights, lacing them together (even when they fought it) to create grand galaxies. I hope one day our orbits will cross paths again.
