The music Richard Chartier releases under his own name tends toward ultra-minimalism: seismic rumble, electrical hum, and cavernous reverb. It is profoundly austere, a vacuum where emotion implodes. But as Pinkcourtesyphone, Chartier indulges his more sentimental tendencies. He calls it “negative mood music”; sourced from rich orchestral sources that have been stretched and warped into undulating waves of purplish tone, it suggests a strange inversion of easy listening. Leaving Everything to Be Desired, the follow-up to 2017’s Indelicate Slices, contains elements as outwardly “musical” as anything in his catalog: rosy chords, slow-motion horn fanfare, symphonic strings. Pinkcourtesyphone’s viscous frequencies recall lysergic loopers like the Caretaker and William Basinski; in places, it sounds like he has layered a dozen different John Williams soundtracks, all slowed and blended into a thick, syrupy goo. A heavy undertow runs through all nine tracks, tugging even the most melodic piece (the gorgeous “elaborate patio dining,” featuring a delicate fantasia by Luigi Turra) into the darkest realms of the unconscious. This is a new spin on sleep music, offering the sonic equivalent of a weighted blanket.
—pitchfork.com
THE 16 BEST AMBIENT ALBUMS OF 2020
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Beautiful elegant sound art that is musical, evocative and highly emotive. Its gurgling electronics, woozy brass and strange sonic activity that I don’t quite understand makes my heart soar. It reminds me of a faded ballroom. I’m not sure why a faded ballroom would make my heart soar but it’s 2020 so we don’t ask questions.
—cyclicdefrost.com
BEST OF 2020
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The latest dose of suburban delirium is an absolute stunner from Richard Chartier, who continues to raise the degrees of my fever with his Pinkcourtesyphone project. For the latest “temporal extravagance” in late-night intoxicated drift, Chartier abandons all predictability, leaving everything to be desired, whether you knew if you wanted it all or not. This is the pre-post-war music of households, where families learn to survive, where they duck and cover, as the mushroom engulfs over cleanly cut grass. And now you can sit down. As the benzodiazepine slowly kicks in, the sounds of the radio, and neighbor’s 78, and someone’s old car, whiff in and out of pop-minimalism, abstract expressionism, and watercolored monochrome film. This marvelous Room40 release… Mastered by the label’s boss Lawrence English, and adorned with the album cover featuring photography by Chartier himself, this third full-length for the imprint is another brave new world chapter in an ongoing daytime soap opera that rings in pink. Highly recommended for your soporific, confined, and disconcerted mind!
—headphonecommute.com
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an album of an intimate character adorned with soundscapes, drones, film recordings and of the environment. The orchestrated sessions, string arrangements that are taken from soundtracks, create a strange scenario that suddenly appears and which shape it can take is unsuspected. For this reason, the trip to which Chartier invites is one-way that does not have the return ticket. Especially in those passages that expand for a long time and we dig ourselves in an immersive and deep experience.
—loop.cl
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Il losangelino Richard Chartier continua – anche qualitativamente – il discorso del precedente bellissimo”Indelicate slices” di 3 anni fa. I titoli dei pezzi, pur non essendo meramente didascalici, sono azzeccati, segno che il musicista pensa a quello che sta facendo. Dare il nome è una attitudine creativa (almeno così insegna la Bibbia). Si inizia con Charm, offensive (for J.D.), con i suoi archi elettronici avvolgenti e un intermittente pulsare di basso e loop atmosferici come un Philip Jeck più leggero, più spettale che materico. Another interior si presenta con una vaga linea melodica accompagnata , sommersa, sostenuta, squassata da intrusioni ora rumoristiche ambient ora ondate sonore, flussi e riflussi, risacche sonore notturne da cui affiorano scampanellii, voci brumose, quasi fossimo nella Los Angeles di “Blade Runner”. A moth seems a monster (for E. Kitt) è un flusso, in ciò che esso ha di continuo e di mutevole insieme: cambia pur restando lo stesso e dove una linea melodica o un loop sembrano prendere il sopravvento l’atmosfera si fa più inquietante, come se l’indugiare su un particolare fosse un sinistro. Potrebbe essere la colonna sonora ottimale per un film horror fantascientifico, un mix di 2001: A Space Odyssey e Alien. How to abolish romance (tanto per chiarire le intenzioni) ha una atmosfera ancora più ossessiva e opprimente com un blues dei Suicide senza ritmo. Uno potrebbe aspettarsi che da un momento all’altro da dietro l’angolo (che non c’è, visto che i suoni sono molto rotondi) sbuchi fuori un urlo di Diamanda Galas. Ci sono poi le intermittenze dei temporal extravagance e, a seguire elaborate patio dining, con il piano suonato con un pedale lunghissimo, quasi che l’eco sia più importante del suono martellato dai tasti e questa eco da brusio si fa rumore sempre più consistente. Il piano, però, trova il modo di insistere e sopravvivere, esempio di resistenza che si arrende solo al momento giusto, quando il ciclo è compiuto ed è il momento di spegnersi. No one wants to admit to that I m afraid (for W.B.) è un magna sonoro mandato in loop, un pezzo che in se potrebbe essere un riempitivo ma che acquista un senso ne contesto di tutto il disco. The shock of each moment of still being alone è fatto di una voce che loopa una notte insonne, abitata da sinistri fantasmi sonori come il montare di uno stato depressivo psicotico inarrestabile e inesorabile che scompone tutto assorbendolo in una unica forma maniacale che tutto copre. La finale leaving everything to be desired (cha in un certo senso è anche l’inizio visto che dà il titolo a tutto il disco) è l’elegia conclusiva, avvolgente e sinistra insieme, con un incedere compassato (trattandosi di elegia), perfetto per la copertina di “Closer” e che finisce con un ritmo che sa di dolente marcia funebre. Disco non certo allegro, quindi, ma ottimo, a parte qualche ripetizioni (non ridondanza) che comunque serve a creare una atmosfera di fondo unitaria. (8)
—Blow Up Magazine, Italy
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Vi e uno spazio il sognatore anche nell’avanguardia piu rigorosa? A questa domanda il nuovo, melanconica album di Richard Chartier sembra rispondere affermativamente, offrendo una visione personale rispetto sia alla tendenza ambient attuale che alle semantiche della sintesi analogica della quale questo album e affascinante alfiere. I suoni si evolvono uno nell’altro formando notturni postmoderni, suggerendo tracce alla memoria, alludendo alla sommersa preponderanza onirica dell’essere umano, da cui il saggio titilo, in quanto si desidera solo cio che non si possiede ed e proprio il desiderio a dare seno alla nostra esistenza. UN ALBUM DA DESIDERARE.
—Rockerilla, Italy
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Richard Chartier stößt ein weiteres Mal die Tür in ein musikalisches Reich auf, in der softes Drones, endlos verhalltes Klackern und Melodien gepresste Melancholie Hide & Seek mit Boards of Canada spielen.
—Sonic Seducer, Germany
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Mit diesen Worten schickt uns Richard Charitier, der hinter dem Projekt Pinkcourtesyphone steckt, in sein neues, inzwischen elftes Album unter diesem Signet. Nun, ich finde ganz so beängstigend und düster ist seine neue elektronische Erkundung der dunklen, verborgenen Seite der menschlichen Psyche letztlich dann doch nicht. Aber es ist natürlich auch kein fröhliches gute Laune Popwerk geworden. Ein weiteres Mal hat Richard Chartier dunkle und gewaltige, aber ebenso subtile Klangwelten erschaffen, die durchaus eine Untermalung für eine dunkle, schlaflose Nacht sein könnten.
Dunkle Drones wabern durch den Raum, ebenso dunkle Klänge wandern von links nach rechts und umkreisen den Hörer. Aber es tauchen immer auch hellere Klänge auf, die dem Klangbild eine etwas freundlichere Note geben. Wie mächtige, aber im Hintergrund befindliche Chöre tauchen diese Passagen auf und ziehen den Hörer aus dem dunklen Strudel wieder an die Oberfläche.
Mehr Umschreibung geht zu diesen gewaltigen und monumentalen, emotionalen und betörenden Klängen nicht. Man kann sich wunderbar auf diesen Sound einlassen, mit ihm dahintreiben und dabei die vielen kleinen Details entdecken, die oberflächlich gehört verborgen bleiben. Man sollte dabei vielleicht tatsächlich nicht einschlafen (auch wenn die Klänge so entspannend sind, dass man das gut kann, was absolut nicht negativ gemeint ist), denn das könnte dann eventuell tatsächlich zu etwas seltsamen Träumen führen.
Der Sound ist obendrein perfekt, man erkennt sofort die Handschrift von Lawrence English, der hierauch seine Hand mit angelegt hat. Tolles Album.
—musikansich.de
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Pinkcourtesyphone looks inward on the melancholic ‘another interior’
Richard Chartier picks up the PCP alias once again for another gorgeous edition on Room40.
Pinkcourtesyphone returns with the follow up to 2017’s Indelicate Slices.
Charting more melancholic psychic territory over nine new compositions, Leaving Everything To Be Desired sees Richard Chartier picking up the Pinkcourtesyphone alias once again.
On the first single, ‘another interior’, lush, textural sound is paired with undulating animations from Alan Callander.
—FACTmag.com
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All too often what passes for “ambient” music is pulled towards one of two poles: nihilistic darkness or cloying lightness – manbient or cutebient. We’re fucking sick of it. Thankfully, mischievous scene veteran Richard Chartier has unleashed a much-needed corrective here with his latest Pinkcourtesyphone full-length, allowing his darkness to languish in sensuality and the softer edges to present tenderly, flamboyantly and joyfully.
Leaving Everything To Be Desired is a dense collection of post-Wolfgang Voigt fog and Badalamenti-inspired Lynchian mystery, spritzed with a cherry-scented mist of queer kitsch. Its cinematic and grand, but never takes itself too seriously, underpinning its woozy, shimmering orchestral blasts with a sense of poised, poignant longing.
There’s no posturing here, Chartier has a catalogue that would put most producers to shame, instead this album is here to represent mood, moment and memory. It’s not hauntology; there’s nostalgia, sure, but detoxed, removed from the churning context of bad cultural tropes and white, cishet self-loathing. Leaving Everything To Be Desired is as decadent as a new set of silk sheets so treat urself and slide in.
—boomkat.com
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Music like the suspenseful movie you loved to watch but still leaves you feeling slightly uncomfortable afterwards when you find yourself alone in your dark house.
—ambientblog.net
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Het experimentela ambientproject van Richard Chartier bestaat intussen al bijna tien jaar. Wat begon als een meer muzikale en emotionele uitlaatklep voor de vaak kille en minimalistische composities van Chartier, is stilaan uitgegroeid tot ambient-wereld. Daarbij vanaf dag één geholpen door een goed uitgedacht nostalgisch concept. Alle releases baden in een rozige schijn en uitvergroten fragmenten van foto’s uit de jaren 1950. Er zijn vreemde titels als ‘How To Abolish Romance’ of ‘A Moth Seems A Monster’. Muzikaal worden vage herinneringen opgeroepen aan vervlogen tijden, met drones, piano, experimentele ambient-loops en af en toe een stemsample. Zo vormt de loop van een gesamplede stem, op een dreunde achtergrond, tijdens ‘The Shock Of Still Being Alone’, al wat je ’s nachts nodig hebt om bewegende gordijnen, en andere dingen te zien die er niet zijn. Deze niewe plaat verandert niets aan het (intussen voorspelbare) concept, maar zoals gezegd: Chartier is een meester in dit vak. Voor wie graan rilt met hauntology, of de meer muzikale output van William Basinski is dit een must.
—gonzocircus.com
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Seiner Vorliebe für eine überwiegend in schmuckem Altrosa gehaltene Optik bleibt Richard Chartier auch auf seinem ab dem 25. September erhältlichen, neuen Album treu. Doch auch seine Präferenz für melancholischverzweifelte Stimmungen findet auf Leaving Everything To Be Desired ihre allgemeingültigen Ausformulierungen. So mannigfaltig die zum Tragen kommenden Klangquellen harmonische Verhältnisse auch vorgaukeln, an der lustvoll niederschmetternden Essenz gibt es nicht den geringsten Zweifel. Es sei denn, man ist imstande, den öfters gerne ins Bodenlose abgleitenden Arrangements einen sehr gewissen Sinn fürs Humoreske anzuhören, der die Absenz von versöhnlichen Begierden bewusst zur Untermalung einer genüsslich vollzogenen Freizeitgestaltung (möglicherweise) zweckentfremdet. Jedoch ist es nicht an Richard Charter, hinsichtlich einer korrekten Rezeption Handläufe anzubieten. Seine nach Art von Schwellkörpern konstruierten Drone-Collagen machen letztlich nur dort keine Gefangenen mehr, wo die Erfahrung von mentalen Verwerfungen und das Verständnis für die Freuden einer radikalisierten Selbstentwertung auch nach diesem Album zur Tagesordnung überzugehen vermögen. In jedem Fall beeindruckt, in geglückten Momenten stets reich beschenkt.
—amusio.com
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… delves into several disciples (cha-cha, anyone?) to weave a fascinating web. The album is informed by insomnia; for those who can’t sleep, soft intrigue awaits.
—acloserlisten.com
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Richard Chartier aka Pinkcourtesyphone took the opposite path. From the sublime minimalism of the almost silence of discrete sound art to the gloomy pessimism of industrial and dark ambient, which concerns both the character of its sound and its morbid, no longer intact sound sources. ‘Leaving Everything To Be Desired’ is a more than impressive document of creeping disillusionment and contemplation, which no longer wants to be quiet and calm, but will inevitably be.
—groove.de
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we see Pinkcourtesyphone’s new longplayer explore a deep, blurred and hazy amalgamation of dubbed out Ambient harmonies and dramatic, partially klaxon’esque and brooding DarkAmbient pulses of well cinematic qualities, brittle and otherworldly reprocessed rhythmic swells of unknown origin, intense, vitreous deep space music for exoterrestrial dinner parties, surprisingly intimate and beautiful piano elegies, solemn melancholia as well as a driving, ever spiralling maelstrom of midrange swirls like the one to be found in our favorite album cut “How To Abolish Romance”. This is what we’d call a dedicated late fall album for a reason.
—nitestylez.de
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Transportant l’auditeur dans des dimensions intérieures chargées de douce mélancolie et de lumières tamisées, Richard Chartier aka Pinkcourtesyphone étale les textures de sa palette pour recouvrir notre psyché d’hallucinations rampantes.
Leaving Everything To Be Desired s’offre à nous tout en se faisant désirer, cache sous ses strates des menaces ruisselant le long de nappes déambulant entre les échos lointains de rêves oubliés.
Pinkcourtesyphone atteint des sommets de quiétude, berce nos désirs à travers des souvenirs floutés par nos mémoires chancelantes. La magie est omniprésente, irriguant nos sens et entrainant nos palpitations cardiaques à se calmer.
Cette oeuvre atteint des sommets de perfection, de par sa façon de tailler le son et de créer des espaces communs parlant au plus grand nombre, liturgie universelle à la beauté divine, ode au libre arbitre et à l’abandon. Vital.
—silenceandsound.me
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Richard Chartier has spent many years mapping out the innermost parts of the human psyche as Pinkcourtesyphone. With the project’s latest studio album, Leaving Everything To Be Desired, he lays on arguably his most luxurious listening experience ever.
—normanrecords.com
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Il compositore di Los Angeles Richard Chartier torna con il suo side-project Pinkcourtesyphone e un album splendidamente intitolato leaving everything to be desired. Che Chartier sia determinato nel suo obiettivo di sorprendere gli appassionati di musica ambient si nota non solo dal suo uso, in sordina, dell’espressione “negative mood music” per descrivere alcuni dei suoi lavori, ma anche dai camaleontici cambi di tono e atmosfera dei suoi dischi, usciti al ritmo di uno l’anno a partire dal 2012.
leaving everything to be desired passa con agilità da un’ambient di variante “dark” (how to abolish romance), a bizzarre suggestioni cinematiche, tra cui spiccano la post-apocalittica another interior e i ritmi balneari di temporal extravagance, un brano che potrebbe passare per una piccola, perduta suite di Nino Rota per Fellini data in pasto a un William Basinski.
—sentireascoltare.com
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The record that resonated the most throughout my dwelling this year was Richard Chartier’s Room40 release, leaving everything to be desired as his Pinkcourtesyphone project. There is something about the disassociated state of being, existing in the present moment yet completely in the past; focusing on the world around you yet seeing everything in the peripheral; hearing the melody looped on end yet getting lost in the smudges of its echo. It’s a suspended piece of music, reverberating through a life on pause, like a struggling insect at the tip of a jello pudding or a page of a poem slowly drowning in a frozen lake or a drying tear on a thorn of a flower. It perfectly captures the feeling of waking up to another repetition, looking straight into the mirror, and asking your tiring and aging reflection, “Is this it?”
—Mike Lazarev via textura.org
