Andrew Liles

Andrew Liles has been recording since the mid 80's. His music, which both eclectic and diverse is often minimalist, surrealistic, experimental and hypnotic, and attempts to transcend any noticeable style or clique.Andrew Liles has been described as "thoroughly chilling" with"incredible sonic depths of dark ambience." and by industrial.orgas "foreboding and at times [a] truly unsettling aural examination, a Rorschact rain cloud streaming out blurred images and tangled memories".

Liles has taken many small portraits of the soundtrack for the underside of the world and has carefully meshed them with samples that are as theoretically unsettling as any of the authentic EVP recordings conducted by Friedrich Jurgensson. A deceptive lullaby of electronic tones, stereophonicacrobatics and drowned words; the samples continue, that of wind-blownrain against the window, voices down the hall, piano interludes, indiscernible conversations in muffled tones on the other end of the line and sinewaves expanding in rooms otherwise acoustically dead.
Liles carves his own distinct sound, but a natural comparison may hinttowards the instrumental works of Coil, the Hafler Trio (particularlyHow to Reform Mankind), Eliane Radigue (Trilogie de la Mort) as wellas the subtle influence of Bernard Parmegiani. A moribund and profoundly disquieting.

Liles' interest in erotica forms a singular vision for this extensivework. his influences range from high culture - hans bellmer, georgesbataille, anais nin - through to fetishism and obsession - such as artiststrevor brown, romain slocombe - onto the submissive and dominant scenarioscreated by the likes of eric stanton, john willie, and tomi ungerer.everything is here - the double entendres of dick emery and benny hill,the toilet humour of "carry-on" and the top shelf seedinessof "readers wives" and "rubberist" musically the records are as diverse and complicated as anyone's fantasies or sexualproclivities. each song and each record is entirely different. complex twisting sounds suddenly disappear to give way to minimalist drones; moroccan medinas melt into manhattan moonlights. sensual voices metamorphose into mumbling perverts. the records are surreal and confusing, relaxing and subduing - both everything and nothing all at once.

Such wonderfully dreary music obviously isn't intended for the masses,but taken for what it is, Liles' work here continually startles you,both with its hushed subtlety and psychological effect.