Bone And Aura Synthesis

Nuori Veri – Luun Ja Auran Syntesi – Aussaat – Cassette – 2020.

https://www.facebook.com/Aussaatundernte/

https://brownhillmafia.bandcamp.com/album/luun-ja-auran-synteesi-2

Nuori Veri is a Finnish experimental artist, this is his third cassette release after Vakaumus and Vakaumus 2, both were released in 2019.

This album is one of those experiences that can’t really be categorised. It functions as a timeless piece of art, there are field recordings, piano tinkering, vocal samples and spoken dialogue woven together to make a tapestry of sound.

The piano features heavily on the album, although still an instrument of present day used by many musicians, alone or with samples and crackles it has a timeless eerie quality as if we are thrown back to early Twentieth Century. The works are like collages of time, shifting the listener through journeys of time and place. As sounds become minimal with crackles and ominous piano the atmospheres become tense as if anticipating disaster. This increases as the work gets quieter and strips down – a soundtrack anxiety. The passages of piano and shouted vocal are intense and pained. Is it the build up to war?

Overall, I think this album works well, everything ties together perfectly. The sounds are rich and evocative, I was placed into a shifting montage of scenarios. This tape is one of the strangest releases that I have received and broke the flow of my usual listening. In the past I have had to write up some shit Experimental releases, it was extremely hard, I wanted to send them back. This in contrast is an excellent work of art and a pleasure to hear, thanks for the journey. I recommend this cassette as good, challenging listening that I am keeping.

Dorcus Maximus 2020

SINIUS - The Ossuary.

Album: The Ossuary

Artist: SINIUS

Label: Self-released

Catalogue no: N/A

Tracklist:

     1.      As Above So Below

     2.      Eliphas Levi’s Baphomet

     3.      Hermetic Origin

     4.      Microcosm and Macrocosm

The Paris Catacombs: one of those places that over the centuries has accumulated layers and layers of myth and legend. The Ossuary, a project of UK-based sound designer, film composer, and photographer Daljit Kundi, was inspired by this most esoteric of monuments to death, a place wrapped in so much obfuscation and mystery that the lines between fact and fiction often blur, to the detriment of creating a clearer picture. However, as human beings we latch on to the occult aspects of such enigmas, preferring the romantic to the mundane, embroidering and embellishing the tales as the tellings grow, and in the process we make manifest its own genius loci that’s entirely independent of the catacombs’ original purpose. It’s even entered the hallowed precincts of popular culture, in the form of 2014’s As Above, So Below film, which peppered the story with references to mainstays of the Western Magical Tradition and occult conspiracy theory; here I have to admit to having thoroughly enjoyed it, tending as I do towards the occult and esoteric.

It appears that Kundi is also drawn to these aspects too. Even a cursory glance at the track titles will tell you that the project is interested in emphasising the esoteric connections, obviously delving deeply into the myths and legends associated with the place. Prosaically, long-abandoned limestone mines begun in Roman times were reused after public health concerns about overcrowded cemeteries with exposed rotting corpses triggered bouts of deadly disease, finally forcing the authorities to do something. It is said that up to six million individuals are interred here among the estimated 185 miles of tunnels running beneath the city. It isn’t surprising then, when corridors are lined either side with bones, that stories and tales of mysterious events have sprung up and persist.

This four-track album expresses these subterranean concepts in quiet hisses, shimmering planes of drone, whispering winds and exhalations, and crackles and scrapings, creating a range of subdued atmospheres redolent of the grave and of spaces reserved for the dead. This is a place where anything but a whisper is anathema, where the souls and shades of the dead roam randomly in search of a place to rest. These are the nameless and forgotten, the unremembered former inhabitants of the City of Light, now mired in Hadean darkness and oppressive gloom. This really isn’t a fit habitation for the living, but inevitably of course in our quest to conquer the fear of the unknown we’ve introduced light and modern cultural phenomena into its corridors, spoiling and defiling its respectful silences. SINIUS’ compositions go some way in reminding us that even those whose names have been lost to time deserve to rest in peace, to let them exist outside the over-bright world of modern day humanity, and to sleep the long sleep without distraction.

Having outlined the above, that’s not all this music offers. Interweaving between the lines of the purely romanticised aspects attaching to death, the occult layers underpinning our conceptions of the spiritual and esoteric of the darker side of human existence abound here too. There are untapped currents of power here, humming along concealed conduits unavailable to those who aren’t attuned to their frequencies. It’s a multi-layered release, with as many meanings and themes occurring as one can comfortably accommodate. Once can successfully separate them, or view them in combination: either way, I think a close listen will reward the listener, revealing a deep understanding of the streams pertaining to life, death, the universe, and the occult. Take the time to invest your mind into this one – it’s quiet, yes, but then so are the dead, and look how strong an influence over the living they exert in culture. This is the key to this one.

Available as a download from here:

https://sinius.bandcamp.com/album/the-ossuary

Psymon Marshall 2019.

Blood Rhythms - Civil War

Album: Civil War

Artist: Blood Rhythms

Label: NO PART OF IT

Catalogue no: None

Tracklist:

1. Closure
2. Sick Skin
3. Locked Away
4. Paris Window
5. The Face
6. Alchemy & Grief (Parts I & II)

Yes, this is loud, experimental in the extreme, avant-garde, noise ambient, industrial, angry, anguished, atmospheric, violent, rhythmic, as well as right in your face and up close, but a close listen will reveal that there’s a lot more going on than meets the ear. Saying that it doesn’t really want to slot into any neat little pigeonholes either, preferring instead to present itself on its own merits. Blood Rhythms is led by veteran experimental musician Arvo Zylo (along with a host of collaborators) and so, armed with all sorts weird and wonderful materials, presents us with the results of this huge experiment/collaboration.

How to begin? ‘Closure’ is a big fat rasp, ripping and shimmering, a blast blaring out of some fogbound landscape, ready to rip skin. A voice and feedback presage the arrival of some demonic entity, scouring and scorching, denuding all before it. ‘Sick Skin’ is pure flesh-ripping anguish, slabs of high-pitched squeaks and resonances interspersed with microsilences, attacks that burrow deep into the brain and turn it into mush. A heavily distorted voice intrudes, exuding malice and anger, before evolving into a less wholesome rhetoric. Closing out side one (see below) is ‘Locked Away’, beginning with a lean, spare slice of death ambient (de)composed of crushing percussion and feedback, before morphing into a vast behemoth of granular noise and acidic bitterness, a kaleidoscopic vortex of bile and rancour.

Like I say, though, it’s not all noise and tortured electronics, as is testified to by ‘Paris Window’ – which begins with a mournful, and thoroughly Gallic, trumpet figure before a metallic sheet of noise, akin to a constant crash of cymbals, fades in and overwhelms like a tsunami. This is followed by ‘The Face’, a Suicide electronic rhythm accompanied by some shouty vox, leading to a free-for-all blast of a ‘chorus’ which is in turn replaced by tribal industrial drumming and what sounds like an industrial-capacity vacuum-cleaner. This track also smells of Crash Worship to this reviewer, which is no bad thing I feel.

And then we’re back to the nuclear radiation of blanket cellular implosion with ‘Alchemy & Grief Part 1’, an earth-stripping concussion wave of concentrated malignancy. ‘Alchemy & Grief Part II’ is all industrial crunch and distortion, garnished with wretched vocals and crashing metallic interjections.

When this was sent to me I had no idea what I was letting myself in for – the description in the blurb covers only part of what’s included here and, if you go to the Blood Rhythms Bandcamp page for this release it doesn’t really enlighten you much further, as it only has ‘The Face’ available to listen to at this moment. If I’d judged solely from that (which no reviewer would do anyway) I’d have missed out on all the textures and nuances that liberally spice this album. It all feels rather in the moment too, a fortunate concatenation of multiple streams of ideas and moods colliding and miraculously melding together into a seamless barrage. This caught me by surprise – it’s an album that, while it grabs you by the scruff and shakes you about, is also enterprising in that it doesn’t deny itself the chance to veer away from strict noise parameters. Give it a spin – it feel it’ll be worth a little exploration.

This will be released on September 1^st in vinyl, in two editions – Opaque Red (100 copies only) and standard Black Vinyl (350 copies only). Order from here:

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/civil-war

Psymon Marshall 2019.

Crows Labyrinth - All Will Perish

Album: All Will Perish

Artist: Crows Labyrinth

Label: Self-released

Catalogue no: N/A

Tracklist:

     1.      All Will Perish

     2.      Nuclear Shore

     3.      Frozen Waves

     4.      Category Five

     5.      Terminus

This offering from Dutch project Crows Labyrinth (Theo Tol) stands in complete contrast to one of my most recent reviews (the death ambient of Trepanerungsritualen) – dark ambient atmospherics abound, to be sure, but its natural home belongs aboveground as opposed to being in the depths. Furthermore, all these compositions are improvised and recorded in a single take (except tracks 2 & 3 – further processing was added post-recording), using nothing more than four- and five-string bass guitars processed through effects. Consequently this is an eclectic collection of ideas and concepts, a wide-ranging exploration of virtual landscapes, both natural and otherwise, and alien topologies.

It should come as no surprise then that the set of pieces presented come across as organic outgrowths, shaped and moulded in real time. The titular track glides in on supersonic streams, gracefully soaring high above the clouds in unfiltered light, barrel-rolling majestically and unhurriedly, catching the thermals and forever climbing. Pulsing and crackling chords, ebbing, flowing and punctuated by vocalisations, scintillate and spark warningly on ‘Nuclear Shores’, a palpable contaminant ready to twist and mutate the delicate DNA of living organisms.

‘Frozen Waves’ is a drone-locked ship, trapped and immobilised in a monolithic Lovecraftian nightmare, held fast by gargantuan slabs of ice that almost appear to be infused with a sentient malice. ‘Category Five’ is the eye of the storm, the eerie centre where everything is preternaturally quiet and calm, a muted harbinger of the maelstrom raging outside its bounds. ‘Terminus’ growls its way into life, a low rattling threat, a beast guarding its lair, daring us to take one more step. The threat escalates into sparking fury, a cacophonic series of spitting detonations endlessly reverberating, piling and collapsing on top of each other, spittle flying, eyes flashing, hackles rising. This is perhaps the very storm that ‘Category Five’ warned us about.

One aspect of this album I particularly like (and appreciate) is the deft maintenance of mood apparent on each composition – musician Tol has resisted the temptation to mess with the basic temper of any particular track, and instead built upon and enhanced the atmospherics. The danger in that, of course, is that that maintenance could become repetitive and samey, but there’s sufficient variation to hold the attention. Furthermore, the degrees of atmospherics expressed within all five tracks keeps the whole affair moving along nicely, delineating those fine differences in much the same way that different times of the day do in real life. It’s almost needless of me to add that this is an accomplished set, by an accomplished musician who undoubtedly is very aware of the ‘craft’ side of music and improvisational composition. Grab yourself a copy (available on the link below) - you may be glad you did.

https://crowslabyrinth.bandcamp.com/

Psymon Marshall 2019

Sonologyst - Phantoms

Album: Phantoms

Artist: Sonologyst

Label: Unexplained Sounds Group

Catalogue no: USG054

Tracklist: 

1. Phantoms

2. Three Options Collided

3. Shamanic Rite Passing on a Table Equipped with Azzax and Trumpet

4. Memorex

5. Dahomey Kingdom

6. Fragments of a Winter with a few Other Cards to Play

7. An Index of Maths Philosophy

8. Codified

9. North-South Crossing

10. Orient Out of Tune

At this moment, there appears to be a lot of great experimental material emerging from Italy, and Sonologyst is no exception. Furthermore, whilst this is undoubtedly firmly in the ambient camp it’s also fair to say that it defies being put into any particular slot within the broad spectrum of ambient styles. There are elements of the dark, occult, ritual, isolationist, and industrial subcategories of the genre, but it’s all mixed together with such craft, skill, and attention to detail that it all melds together into one seamless whole. 

Above all, this is a discourse on the truly alien – using modes of sound and expression that are at once familiar and yet dissonant in some bizarre way. Noises that we hear every day, the constant soundtrack to our daily lives, form the substrates of these ten slices of ghostly surrealistic mirages, fleeting and illusory: voices, machines, natural environments, wailings, screeches, scrapings, and some eluding description. They’re the aural equivalent of fleeting memories flashing stroboscopically on the inner screen, or perhaps a series of hallucinatory snapshots of a distorted hypnogogic dream in disrupted time: before we’ve even had a chance to grasp their significance they’ve already dissolved and segued into something else. 

The beauty of this album is that it refuses to stay still, with sounds and images tumbling over one another in a rush of creation and instantiation. It’s as if this is the point at which everything came into being, with the ghosts of all that was, is, and will be suddenly blooming in one grand gesture, a singularity of focused ideation, an etheric collection of blueprints stamped with potential. It’s a flowering of overflowing chaos, a madhouse of colour, form, and shape, all exploding at once in an act of endless imagination. It’s all here – darkness, light, good, evil, bright, dull, natural and supernatural. In just the same way that we humans are microcosmic reflections of the macrocosmos, so too is this album – it’s a reflection of the all in the singularity, and the singularity in all. 

For people who want quality ambient that defies easy pigeonholing, that’s both uplifting and yet threaded through with hints of the darkly bizarre underbelly of existence, the plane where very few of us venture to explore. Also for those who, like me, ‘see’ music through images rather than as just sounds. A good place to find yourself, I think. 

Psymon Marshall 2019

EDEN - Demain Sera Chaos de Fleurs

Album: Demain sera Chaos de Fleurs

Artist: ÉDEN

Label: Hannah

Catalogue no: N/A

Tracklist:

1.      Demain sera Chaos de Fleurs

2.      Drowned in Space

3.      Static in the Void

4.      Rêves de Ruines

5.      Deeper, through the Light

This five track album is another release from the young Hannah label, one which appears to be issuing material solely through Bandcamp. Whereas Espaces by labelmate Nikita Fuji is one single musical expression divided up into seemingly arbitrary tracks, Demain sera Chaos de Fleurs (Tomorrow will be the Chaos of Flowers – although to be grammatically correct the French should be Demain sera Chaos des Fleurs) presents a varied selection of atmospheres and moods.

The title track begins with a pulsing organ-like tone that soon develops into a grainy fuzzed-out industrial machine noise swelling that piles up upon itself continuously, like a never-ending rumbling of thunder. Then we jump to the other end of the spectrum in ‘Drowned in Space’, echoing knocks from inside a gargantuan hollowed out metallic cocoon: an embryonic something existing in potentia that wants to born. It too, builds up steadily, its heartbeat getting stronger by the second.

‘Static in the Void’, the following track, again pulses and shimmers into view; perhaps this is the potential apparent in the previous piece now made absolute, and whatever it is has made itself manifest in three-dimensional space. The pulse of life and strength is solid and palpable here: its struggle for existence has been justified, and its living, breathing, and pulsating fleshiness has been birthed for all to see. ‘Rêves de Ruines’ is its manifesto perhaps, its announcement of the fulfilment of some idea or prophecy.

Finally, we get to what is my highlight of the album – ‘Deeper, through the Light’, a sumptuous swirling inflowing of sound and light, converging to a singularity of illumination. Does that illumination merely signify physical light, or is it the illumination of the sainted man or woman? Is it the return of matter to its source, or the mote in God’s eye into which we all return? Or is it merely a signpost, a pointer to a path on which we must all tread? Yes, it contains a subtle hint of the angelic, but simultaneously it also speaks of ineffable power. It is not to be trifled with: it may be the harbinger of a glorious future, but that future is merely the destination. The path itself is dangerous and full of peril, and we must be wary.

I thought of this as more of a sampler album on which the artist is laying out his wares on a virtual table. There is much potential apparent, even as it stands (four of the tracks are short, coming in under five minutes, but it’s only on the last track which, at over eleven minutes, gives it the room to breathe, expand, and explore properly). I suggest that perhaps that ÉDEN might consider gracing us with longer, more developed exegeses, allowing to us to become better acquainted with his vision. His work certainly deserves a wider canvas on which to paint his pictures.

Digital album available from https://hannahmusic.bandcamp.com/album/demain-sera-chaos-de-fleurs

Psymon Marshall 2019

The Infernal Kitchen Scandals

The G.R. Orchestra – The Infernal Kitchen Scandals - 2019 - https://thegrorchestra.bandcamp.com/releases     

1.       Fuckin’ Disaster.

2.       Fuckin’ Critical.

3.       Fuck Yourself.

4.       Don’t Call Me Fuckin’ Mate.

Denmark based G R Orchestra’s ‘The Infernal Kitchen Scandals’ was originally recorded in 2016 by Per Najbjerg Odderskov. It will be released on CD in April 2019.  Its theme is foul mouthed TV celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, known for his aggressive verbal outbursts and confrontations that frequently erupt on most of his Television programmes.  There have been enough Ramsay TV confrontations to provide this project with enough sample material for a very large discography. I am unsure if all the samples are Ramsey based or if there is cross contamination with other sample sources.

All the tracks use the said Ramsay samples to provide a verbally violent sample base for each track. These are then coupled with massive Death Synths, Power Electronic noises and distortions. Samples are looped, placing emphasis on shouting and arguing to the point of insanity; making for aggressive, tense landscapes of noise and samples.

This recording demonstrates a unique use of mass media sampling that isn’t themed on the usual criminal interviews, disaster newscasts, victim statements etc. It does have a quirky avant-garde quality to it through its playfulness and humour in how the samples are tweaked and looped - this shifts the sample context a lot and contrasts with the consistent tension in the work. It also in parts, strips itself down to a minimal use of sound and can move into some ambient territory at times; along with the areas of overload allows for the samples to be consistently effective. I found it very tense and hard to review at the same time. But still, this is a good, well thought out fuckin' recording!!!!!!!!!

Choppy Noodles 2019.