-The Music of Restricted Area
Musically, I’m very interested in polyphony or more precisely contrapuntal forms. The complexity seems more interesting to me aesthetically, the tying together of multiple voices into a kind of whole from consonant to dissonant. This kind of display or uncovering of complexity can be found in Peter Elm’s music. His ongoing project Restricted Area has now reached its fruition with the release of his latest album Fun and Fearless. The upbeat title seems to deny the content of the album, but I view it as a kind of mantra for the future, an aspiration rather than a factual statement of current affairs.
The music of Restricted Area is eclectic, the sum total being more than its parts, the synergy of multiple identities, many voices playing off against each other, without any need to reconcile them, just to hold them together. Mr. Elm’s music is a product of not one culture but many. The encounters and subsequent clashes with multiple identities can be heard in songs like The Longing (Explode), Oublier (Sex Dream Drive), Alcohol n’ downwards (Realtime).
There is also distinctive dichotomies apparent in many songs. The male and the female voices that battle against each other in what seems to be total incomprehension in each other. The mystical female always elusive, enticing, terribly beautiful, The Strong but sometimes also weak male, misunderstood, unhappy and in need of guidance, reassurance and love. There is a very asian quality to these features. Love and death, power and weakness are other two-pairs that are explored. The wish to narrate and be heard is evident in Scorn (Fun and Fearless), where he reflects on the shallow nature of the media and pop-culture.
In his latest album Peter Elm is creating a sort of archeology of his own musical experience. He digs them up and puts them on display as if to say:
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