Richard Chartier

Comprised solely of unreleased material and material made for labels other than his own (Chartier co-runs the Line label with 12k founder Taylor Deupree), Other Materials is an interesting survey of Chartier’s musical progression from 1999-2001. While the foundations of his artistic principles are evidently solidified from the beginning (the act of listening and involvement, experiments with microtonality versus silence over a long space of time), the methods and sound palettes that he chooses have developed significantly over quite a short period. This is probably due to the evolution of technology and advancements in sound design, but that’s not a reason to take the early works for granted, as they’re equally as stunning and intense now as they were the first time around.
—allmusic.com

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Other materials is a chronologic compilation of Richard Chartier’s work between 1999 and 2001. This album also features some previously unreleased tracks. Compared to his album Two locations the music is more lifely and dynamic. Richard Chartier moves in different directions, though remains loyal to his style as well. Other material heads off with dry clicks, loud crisps, vibrating basses and rhythmic metals craping. Whereas one of the last songs entitled Filer features an uptempo dense rhythm and occasional bass tone, reminding of Pan Sonic. Silver, the last track, is a deep vibrating haunting soundscape. And “Untitled60sec” is hardly audible, due to the high frequency that has been used. In general the songs waver from crinkling sprinkles of static to ominous, churning sine wave patterns. The musical elements move away and towards each other in a very disciplinary way, every sound is right in its place and appears at the right moment. Richard Chartier knows how to create tension, whatever sound she uses and in whatever direction the music is heading. This album offers a glimpse into the a productive period of an excellent artist, who will become one of the key figures in todays electronic music scene.
—Phosphur Magazine, Germany

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In a compilation of thirteen tracks recorded 1999-2001 (five which are previously unreleased) Richard Chartier unveils a set of sound experiments on his own label, 3Particles. Based on finite minimalism his beautiful statics have a foreign harmony and remote parallelism to his visual works as a designer/painter. On the unreleased “Stat(ist)ic” a dark and narrow corridor is affected and fades in and out of aural consciousness. Other tracks are sheer silence and void, desolation and calm, including 1999s bare bones “3Particles” – which would be an interesting theme song for transcendental meditation. The pieces are fleeting, and have an uncharacteristic glow in appearance, they speak to the weary, the worn and the ambivalent. “Spec.sketch7” (unreleased) has the seasoning of open wire sine waves with a repeating low-fi percussive treatment. This disc is for those headphone dreamers who can relate to the tongues of dolphins perhaps. Its overall tension is all in the awareness of the individual listener. To play this in a room with any ambient sound spill would strip its intensity. A quizzical language between composer and audience is created by way of its nominal, almost subliminal conventions. The enchanting “Sent” almost sounds as though it could be a distant vacuum cleaner, and vibrates with tactile chirping and lots of headroom. Closing with the final unreleased track, “Silver”, is an eight minute sweepingly dark cinematic score. Chartier teaches that there is more to less in the subconscious.
—Igloo Magazine, US

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… Like Direct.Incidental.Consequential, Other Materials is composed of earlier works, some previously released on various compilations (like 12k/Line’s Between Two Points and Mille Plateaux’s Clicks & Cuts 2) and some previously unreleased. The thirteen tracks here are diverse, to say the least, from the shimmering abstraction of the first track, “8 Tools,” to the near-silence of “010101.” If Direct offered a gimpse of Chartier’s early style (albeit one recreated by the Chartier of today), then Other Materials could be seen as a glimpse into his “maturation” as an artist. The track listing here is chronological, from 1999 to 2001 (though a few tracks weren’t released until 2002), so I expected to hear music that would gradually disappear, with each song being more minimal than the last, until, by “010101,” all you get is music that is only audible at full volume. Well, that’s not what I hear here. The third track, “3Particles” from 1999, is about as minimal as you can possibly expect music to be. The entire track, all five minutes, is silent save three tiny particles of static that bleep in and out of existence at various points along the way. Tracks from later years, meanwhile, remind me a lot of the tracks from 1998’s Direct.Incidentalin their use of fluttering noise wandering around in my ears and the prominent use of long, dirigible tones that sweep over and envelop every other sound. Other Materials demonstrates to me that Chartier’s “development” as an artist has nothing to do with volume and everything to do with an increased appreciation for and fascination with sound and the manipulation of sound.
—StylusMagazine.com