Bastien Pons, a French sound artist and black-and-white photographer, invites us to hear what we would otherwise not notice in “One Minute of America”. Built off a found street recording made somewhere in the U.S., the piece opens as a distant snippet: footsteps, mumbling voices, the normal breathing of a passing city.
Without forcing any narrative in these sounds, Pons lets them float and turn sixty seconds of unadulterated ambiance into a meditative work. A low, off-beat kick drum rises, not to push you along, but to feel like a heartbeat within what could feel like chaos.
The piece draws from maintenance, showing that stillness can be as powerful as movement. Textures shift and swell in an almost invisible motion, similar to clouds in an open sky. What could have become a dream or immersion when sound between music and environment aligns.
“One Minute of America” is not so much a narrative story to follow as it is a mood to occupy. It is less about what you, as listener, occur in the recording- and maybe these outlines now blurred together- more about what you can begin to approach.
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