On the inner pannel to this digipack, Andrew Johnson delivers an introductory statement, which once again makes me wonder why the art of writing prefaces to album has all but disappeared from sight. “As with Mike Hansen’s paintings”, Johnson claims, “the compositions of “At every point” avoid making a grand statement (...) It is the lack of a grand statement that allows the listener to focus on the depth of each detail.” Which is another way of saying: There are surprises behind each and every corner.As one might expect, the open invitation to enjoy the pleasures of this album’s details requires a great deal of concentration and the ability to let go of all expectations concerning structure. Not because there is none to be found here, but because its logic is hard to decipher. As humans beings, we all rely on a certain degree of familair organisation, while our thirst for the new leads us to places alien and fearsome to our organism. This dichotomy has lead to techniques such as cut-up writing, but Hansen is not one to simply construct meaning by deconstrcting it on another level. Rather, his method comes close to walking a tightrope: Each step is carefully measured, yet once it has been taken, the situation has changed and requires new considerations. While our imaginary tighrope walker will take hours to cross the canyon, the process of “At every point” is one of many instantaneous decisions: Sceneries change abruptly and without prior notice; what was once pleasant can now appear intimidating and the darkness breathing in your neck may reveal its hidden beauty. Sound-wise, Hansen has a strong inclination for scraping metallic noises - sometimes as soft as brushing cymbals and occasionally as confronting as dropping a heavy trash bin lid from the top of the empire state building - all created from instruments such as cowbells, harmonicas or Vietnamese drums. On more than one occasion, the thought of this being Jazz comes up, not only in the most obvious example of “Tidying up after” with its blaring wind section and drum escapades, but quite generally in the way the different elements interact with each other, interlocking for ensemble play and errupting into weird solos.It is this interaction on the one hand and the notion of rhythm on the other which hold the disparate components together and act as a guide through the abstractions of “At every point”. Even though Hansen comes from turntablism, he has not reverted to the usual and probably easiest option of sampling himself to death, but created a world from scratch. Which is maybe the most remarkable feat about this album, which sounds as though its source material could have been taken from an international field recording sampler. The fact that it appears hugely ambitious is certainly no contradiction to Andrew Johnson’s opening remarks: In the lack of any recognisable theme at all, every detail could be a grand statement. -Tobias Fisher (TOKAFI)

At Every Point desenrola-se ao longo de cinco peças todas elas com mais de 7 minutos e menos de 16. Ao todo, são quase 53 minutos de explorações que Mike Hansen decidiu entregar à Etude, uma editora criada em Barcelona em 2006 que se dedica à música experimental, à improvisação, field recordings, música minimal e aos sons obscuros em geral. O cenário editorial pareceu agradar a Mike Hansek, improvisador electro-acústico de Toronto que se tem vindo a envolver-se na cena improvisada canadiana há mais de uma década. Para este lançamento em particular fez-se rodear essencialmente de percussão, uma guitarra eléctrica e dos sons e samples de gira-discos, o seu principal aliado musical de longa data.O terreno preparado por Mike Hansen é gélido e desumano mas igualmente fértil. O desenvolvimento de “The day before the day” é lento e cuidado e, por isso, rico em sensações. “Ridying up after” é bastante mais sedutor e preenchido do que o tema anterior, acima de tudo pela presença constante da percussão, mas logo a seguir “The Alarm went off sooner than expected” marca o regresso a terrenos mais pausados e serenos. At Every Point é por isso um disco de altos e baixos – quer em termos de método, quer em termos de interesse. O próprio Mike Hansen descreve a sua técnica como sendo a de um pintor construtivista, no sentido de fazer música com os sons que tem à mão e transformar esses sons em algo novo e imediato. E também cerebral e exigente.Enquanto que “Once held a lighter high in the sky” explora o ruído como ainda não tinha sido feito em At Every Point (em volumes e em intensidade), “An example of what I meant” introduz elementos de fantasia e quimera num disco bastante cru e autêntico – se quiserem real. Introduz-lhe até uma certa espiritualidade que deixa água na boca e o desejo que Mike Hansen se aventure mais amiúde por este tipo de terrenos. “An example of what I meant” é a única porção ligeiramente quente e quase humana de um terreno já de si fértil, fechando um disco em que, apesar de o método se sobrepor à forma, Mike Hansen consegue momentos fervilhantes e merecedores de atenção. -André Gomes (BODYSPACE).

The name Mike Hansen was new to me, but Hansen is certainly no newcomer to the world of music. Previously known for his turntable antics, this is Hansen's first CD for Etude records, which is a brand-new label specializing on experimental, improvisational, field recordings, minimal music and sound archives. The five compositions on this 50-minute disc are made out of raw sound material using guitars and amps, cowbells, harmonicas, Vietnamese drum and of course processing from Hansen's turntable installations. Sounding both soothing and disturbing with plenty of dynamics, At Every Point is actually a fine improvisational album, with highlights like Tidying Up After and The Day Before The Day. -Vital Weekly.

This Canadian musician is known as turntablist, but now uses prepared record player, guitar and percussion to come up with an improvised set. This has been processed through a series of low-fi electronics, haunted by samples of actual recordings.
A lot of scraping metal sounds can be heard, constantly shifting, altering and disappearing. This constant movement in the music is exciting. Abstract images occur in one's mind while listening, creating a mysterious atmosphere. This is an exciting piece of work without a weak moment. -Phosphor.

With his 2006 Etude Records release “At Every Point,” Hansen presents a sparse, starkly arranged collection of electroacoustic work. Although the credited instruments only include a prepared record player, guitar, and percussion; this is clearly not the case– avoiding the overt use of the studio as instrument is ignoring a tremendous elephant in the room.On tracks like the album’s opener “The day before the day,” Hansen arranges numerous smaller sounds as acousmatic tableau; metal punctures alongside scraping swing-sounds, before rubbed drums signal an oncoming slow-motion crash of cymbals. Unless Hansen has developed a second pair of arms, its clear a lot of editing is going on here.Don’t believe for a second that I think this is a bad thing. In no way do I feel tricked, or disappointed. Rather, I am quite happy to find a recording combining so many elements I enjoy: the prepared turntable (which Hansen is well-known to utilize), the obsessive quality of sound placement common to electroacoustic recording, and the finicky attention to detail only available to those willing to spend a significant amount of time whittling at digital recordings.In passing, this is not an album that grabs you right away. Almost everything about it is low-key to the casual encounter. Instead, this is what I internally refer to as a “growing” album, a slow-burn that gathers steam with every time you press “repeat.” Whereas the metallic bowed-string noise of “Tidying up after” seem rather monolithic at first, upon examination, they surely resolve into layers of alternating tones, growing amongst one another as crystals. And how long it takes to notice the underlying crackle of vinyl when concentrating on scraped rust events, the single tap of glass, and the nervous, nearly-arrhythmic drumrolls!For all the studio effort Hansen surely put into this album, it is most striking, then, that it develops as much organic flow and real-time improvisatory qualities as it does. I can imagine this work being played as a trio or quartet, as it is not burdened with effect-trickery. Recommended for headphones, or rather loud speakers. -Dave X (Starling moniker).

Mike Hansen is Toronto’s best-known experimental turntablist, but At Every Point expands his sonic palette so vastly that this disc can hardly be compared to any of his records on Spool. This disc is composed and edited on computer, although his turntable sources are prominent ingredients. There are three ten-minute-plus compositions complemented by two shorter, more song-like structures. Each long form piece presents rich atmospheres, showing a great understanding of how to coherently combine seemingly random ingredients. Each of these pieces has a certain tuning where even atonal elements of record static seem to be in harmony. The balance between the urge to process sounds and leave them unaltered is well maintained. When used, the delay and harmoniser settings change constantly, which draw the listener in even further. But when “Once Held A Lighter High In The Sky” chops up some bravura rawk guitar and drums Plunderphonics style you snap back to attention. At Every Point contains some very accomplished and diverse approaches to computer composition. Best of all, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, which makes for repeat listening. -David Dacks (Exclaim).