The Stringed Theory - "Universal Relativity"

The Stringed Theory - Quark (Stadtgruen 2007)

The Stringed Theory - Universal Relativity / Stadtgruen

Now nearly 40 years old, the sad truth is that there are still precious few people who actually know what the whole idea behind String Theory is. "The Elegant Universe," the "theory of everything," what does all of it mean? Here's as simple a description as I can come up with: Quantum theory (which holds that the universe is made of finite amounts of things) and relativity (which holds the universe as smooth and continuous) are incompatible when dealing with extremely large or extremely small sizes or masses. String theory plugs the hole by describing matter as small, vibrating loops called excitation modes. Throw in a little about Rube Goldberg and flaws in the system and you have a pretty good idea of why the layman doesn't really get it. Scientists don't, either.

It's enough to make the average person's mind wrap around itself in an effort to take it all in. Diving head-first into the whole concept can be both mind-numbing and stressful. It is ironic, then, that The Stringed Theory is actually instant anti-stress music. Though inspired by the complexities of a theory that may or may not even be true, Vista, CA resident Dustin Frelich has made an album that inhabits the worlds of ambient electronic and post-shoegaze IDM. Fennesz and Belong are a good way to enter the protons, neutrons and bosons of Universal Relativity.

That's how it starts off, appropriately enough. "Boson" comfortably warms up the headphones as the opener, inhabiting a space with drones and force carrier particles to ease the brain. The bosonic string was the earliest model of string theory, so a subtle nod to make this the opener is both coy and virtually unnoticeable. The beauty of "Quark" is the most immediately touching to me, its guitars reminiscent of Belong's October Language that came out last year. Cosmic key tones and swirling guitar noise are also the meat n' potatoes of songs like "Sparticle" and "Parallel," while "Equivalence" chimes along with a simple electronic note progression that changes slowly over the course of its five-and-a-half minutes. With seven tracks running 40 minutes, the songs are in no hurry to grow on you, which they always do. Universal Relativity is sort of immediately striking in that you can remember one or two tunes the first time you play it through; to properly digest these recordings, however, one must play it back at least three or four times to take it all in. That said, it's a swell album. Sedate and pleasant, optimistic and playful, cosmic and coherent.

One of the best parts to the album? This stuff is all licensed under a creative commons license, so if you happen to love this track, there are plenty of places to go to get the rest of them for free. German-based netlabel Stadtgruen have chosen wisely in releasing their first American: Frelich has brought the best in ambient and minimalist drone to the table. For a group of like-minded individuals that have brought their culturally natural music together under the Stadtgruen name (Though their roster is full of electronic artists, their homepage is dominated by the image of a plant), one of your best places to start is The Stringed Theory. Just be prepared to take some heat from the growing number of String Theory disbelievers. If only they knew Universal Relativity, maybe they would change their minds.