Johnny Scarr – Etude In Black – CDr – 2024 - Chocolate Monk – Choc.615.
https://chocolatemonk.co.uk/available.html
1. Untitled.
2. Untitled.
"Some significant personal events occurred and I made some inept "faulk" music in response (so emo). Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the work fails to convey much of anything about those events. After making stuff which was intentionally devoid of emotional resonance for years, this way of working felt pretty revealing and somewhat pathetic. Which is probably why, by the time I was done with it, I think I ended up burying most, if not all sentiment that might have been there." - Mr J.Scarr
Quote taken from Chocolate Monk website.
Etude in Black comes three years after Johnny Scarr’s last release ‘NONNAH’ in 2021. NONNAH was excellent, so it will be a hard act to follow. I also have the opinion it was one of the best things that I had ever heard from Chocolate Monk. The title alludes to an episode from season two of the US Crime Series Columbo. I believe the cover is an image of Columbo (Peter Falk) with corpsepaint added.
Etude in Black follows the use of solo synthesiser work that NONNAH also used, deep resonations, shifting melodies, two long improvised pieces of work that were heavily edited afterwards. The synths begin as haunted echoes that eventually begin to sparkle at times and achieving a dark beauty. It feels like the slow comedown of too much beer at Rammel Club and walking home down Woodborough Road in search of cheap pizza to eat in a shop doorway.
Like good Ambient work it shifts into different territories, at one point it begins to form glitchy drones that sound like bagpipes channelled through electronics, in another it sounds like basement bleakness, cellar creepiness playing out. In other parts the synths take me to the film A Chinese Ghost Story and makes me desperately want to watch it again. The second piece goes into murkier, choppier territory. The sound melts itself, bubbling and gargling in parts. Sections cut out and remerge in different sections, it is like a record skipping from one track to another. The second track emits more despair than the first creating a total contrast.
Etude in Black like NoNNAH is a challenging work of shimmering, shifting beauty. Well worthy of your purchase and listening.
Nothing and Nobody 2024.
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