Manitou, is the project of Jack Read, who came to ambient experimental music somewhat late in life. As he was doing environmental research just off the perimeter of Ford's River Rouge complex for his PhD dissertation he was struck with an overwhelming sonic epiphany. Sound worlds collided as he was hit with the bleeding noise of I-75, the toxic hum of the River Rouge plant and the gurgling of the nearby filtration ponds. He realized that while his environmental work was important, it wasn't nearly as important as the shrinking of the natural sound environment. He had bumped into the theories of Acoustic Ecology in the course of his work, but steeped himself in it after his River Rouge experience. The River Rouge experience turned Manitou into a sonic activist, and his recordings and performance art installations are a response to the dwindling natural sound environments throughout the world.
REVIEW OF ALL POINTS NORTH: The Manitou is from Detroit and has an album out celled All Points North. That’s as much information as I can glean about him. On the other hand that is enough because it helped me locate where all the points of reference are for the music. With track titles like Ice Cream At Soldiers And Sailors Monument and I Wrote Your Name On The Davison Overpass, you quickly realise that there is a theme here - the theme is Detroit. The music is ambient textures of layered synth-like sound. The effect is to induce a kind of dream-like waking atmosphere that is in a totally different timescale from music with beats. At times I started to imagine wide streets, blurred tall structure and vague tingling of my skin feeling wind or rain. I’m used to music having a physical effect but this was cerebral as well.
Initially I had thought this would not be my thing at all but I girded my loins and was rewarded. This album is magical. One extra affect is that is has changed my view of Detroit. I now imagine it as somewhere with wide space (maybe not green space but space nevertheless) rather than the crowded urban jungle I had assumed it was.
