Various - Modern Bon III

Album: Modern Bön III: Rechaka [Exhalation)

Artist: Various

Label: Modern Bön

Catalogue no: MB///0003

Tracklist:

     1.      Nastika – A Place Among Them

     2.      The Nent – Vacuum (Vu Remix)

     3.      Restive Plaggona – Normal is Perverse

     4.      Skrei – Akos (E. I. N. remix)

     5.      Korse – Tengu

     6.      Holotrop – Liquid Slow Dream

     7.      IlSantoBevitore – Rosso Ocra

     8.      SR60 – 25 Days

Bön, for those not in the know or who haven’t encountered the word before, is the original indigenous religion of Tibet before Buddhism entered the country from India at some point in the 8^th century AD, where the latter absorbed many of Bön’s particular traditions, giving rise to a distinct form of Buddhism. Modern Bön is a series of compilations, three so far, which have encompassed the phases of Puraka [Inhalation], Kumbhaka [Contemplation], and this one, Rechaka [Exhalation]. As far as I am aware, there will also be a fourth phase, Nirvana [Eternal Grace], to complete what is effectively a ritual. You will find reviews of both previous volumes on this site as well.

This differs somewhat from either of the foregoing entries, in that here we have a selection in which rhythmic elements appear in some of the pieces, indicative of the incoming Pranayama, the pure energy which moves and animates life. As such then, its vitality needs to be received, absorbed, and understood on a fundamental level, and rhythm, the essential beat of life, must necessarily become part of the music of this particular stage. However, Nastika’s ‘A Place Among Them’ continues on where the last volume left off, in that here we once again experience the higher planes as vast carpets of drones and emanations, a slow massing of energies that threaten to overwhelm but somehow manage to be contained. ‘Vacuum’ by The Nent is the first to introduce a rhythmic element, a huge pulsing backbeat playing host to short stabs of drone and a repetitive electronic figure. The energy is gradually coming through, circuits are being established, conduits being created, and the spiritual arteries spider-web into every part of body and mind.

Dimitris Doukas’ Restive Plaggona (I reviewed his Matriarchy Roots début some days ago), is up next with ‘Normal is Perverse’ and again we are treated to strong, insistent rhythms that evolve and build constantly during the track’s running time, as the energies released radiate and fuel the adherent. The pulse is quickening and the mind is opening to the full panoply of the reality behind Maya, the illusion of the world we live in, and perceptions are being sharpened as a result – ‘normality’ is perverse, in that it hides truth and blinds us to it.

Skrei’s ‘Akos’ (E. I. N. remix) returns to more ambient beatless territory, sending us instead on a drone and noise high, as full realisation dawns and the whole of creation stretches out before us in all its multi-dimensional and technicolour glory. It’s all here, every molecule and every conceivable nuance that ordinarily would remain imperceptible and hidden. The beat returns, pulsing with life and vivacity, on Korse’s ambient ‘Tengu’, a syncopated beat set against drones and shimmering sheets of sound. It’s a purified kind of whirling dance being performed here, an alchemised and spiritual paean to the underlying pulse of life and all being, the incarnation of the highest essence into the material plane. Holotrop’s drone immensity, ‘Liquid Slow Dream’, descends like a physical manifestation, accompanied by thunder and lightning, a harbinger of something vast and all-encompassing until another syncopated beat fades in along with an electronic bass sequence. Of all the tracks so far, I think this is the one that has hooked me completely, an unstoppable monolithic force intent on breaking falseness and deception.

IlSantoBevitore’s ‘Rosso Ocra’ (Red Ochre) starts with a sub-bass drone before complex rhythms, tribalistic in tone and execution, impose themselves upon the bass backdrop. It’s a short piece, but somehow bringing the energies of the higher realms down to a human level – a necessary reducing mechanism to transform those powers into something useable. SR60’s ‘25 Days’, perhaps an indication of how long the ritual has lasted, begins with a drone which oscillates along with more rhythmical percussive punctuations, as the adherent fully absorbs and transmutes the spiritual energies into elements that he can infuse into his own body. His body, while still composed of flesh, has perhaps itself transformed into something beyond human and crass, invested with powers that have taken off the edge of his flesh’s coarseness and refined his mind a little. He still has a way to go, but his feet are already firmly on the path.

This is a shorter album than the other two compilations, but in some respects that is descriptive of the quickening of life and perception consequent upon the dawning of enlightenment. The energies are boundless, limitless, and will not be constrained. As I said, this is different from Volumes I & II, an upbeat mirroring of the adherent’s new-found state. If you have I & II, then three is an essential addition, a completion of the process started on Puraka and continued on Kumbhaka: however, it is itself only a prelude to Nirvana [Eternal Grace], the endpoint of a monk’s spiritual and esoteric practises. I find myself pondering what wonders the next release will bring us – but patience, like in meditation, will be a requisite.

Available from Modern Bön’s Bandcamp page:

https://modernbon.bandcamp.com/album/modern-b-n-v-a-iii-rechaka

Psymon Marshall 2019. 

Various - Anthology of Contemporary Music from Middle East

Album: Anthology of Contemporary Music from MiddleEast

Artist: Various

Label: Unexplained Sounds Group

Catalogue no: USG055

Tracklist:

      1.      Ahmed Saleh – Feryal

      2.      Naujawanan Baidar – Asir-e Jangi

      3.      Bloom Tribe – Desendence

      4.      Cenk Ergün – Bir

      5.      Hasan Hujairi – Prelude for Orpheus

      6.      Nilüfer Ormanli – Art of Dying

      7.      Pharaoh Chromium – Gaza Requiem

      8.      Ahmed Saleh – Khitam

      9.      Guy Gelem – Parallels

     10.  Tony Elieh – The Dark that Matters

     11.  Farouk Adil – Surface Crack

     12.  Mazen Kerbaj – The Acoustic Synthesiser

     13.  Yusef Kawar – Nerves

     14.  Dimitris Savva – Thalassa

     15.  Nyctalliz – The Humanity Demise

     16.  Cenk Ergün – Amsterdam

We tend to forget that music is an international and intercultural language, a means of communication that crosses boundaries and barriers. We also forget that maverick musicians exist in all countries, and that an underground scene thrives in places that often surprise us, but shouldn’t. Take Iran as an example: Western-style pop music is banned in that country because it’s considered unIslamic but, as Unexplained Sounds Group and Cold Spring’s co-release Visions of Darkness compilation CD of experimental music from Iran released some years back proved, there are those who will circumvent restrictions in whatever way they can. Human inventiveness refuses to be suppressed.

Joining that compilation is Unexplained Sounds Group’s Anthology of Contemporary Music from Middle East, but with a broader remit and scope. Musicians and projects from Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Cyprus are represented here, covering a wide spectrum of styles and genres. It’s an eye-opening selection, conjuring up phantasmagorical visions of exotic worlds and faraway places that are normally only seen in the corner of one’s eye.

Apart from anything else, the cultural streams and markers extant within each country are still keenly felt and expressed within each individual piece, even if the concepts and frameworks are uniquely transmogrified into warps and wefts of fractal complexity and technicolour saturation. More than that this musical freedom, without the constraints imposed by strict definitions of genre, means that the musicians are free to explore fresh avenues and panoramas that perhaps in other countries and cultures has been concretised to a much greater extent.

The appeal of the exotic is alluring, to be sure, but I can honestly say that every composition on this compilation held my attention, a rarity for any anthology I think. It’s the sheer spectrum of expression that impresses me, ranging from pieces that are heavily tinged with traditional modes right up to noise and experimentalism. Ahmed Saleh’s ‘Feryal’ voice-loop opening on the first track is lulling, because it feels like the beginning of some dance track but it never quite breaks, instead piling on more voice loops describing distant, fabulous architectures of the mind and imagination. Naujawanan Baidar’s piece is eminently reminiscent of Philip Glass with its minimalist repetition of a two-note horn-blast, over which writhe interjections and punctuations. Overall its atmosphere conjures up visions of vast armies marching across dusty desert sands and impenetrable mountain ranges.

Bloom Tribe bring us shimmering sirens and alarms hitched up to jerky rhythms on ‘Desendence’, before descending strings fall and disintegrate into the dust of ages. Cenk Ergün’s ‘Bir’ is the most experimental so far, its stacked rhythms all competing against each for dominance, a fractured canvas perhaps indicative of the fractious history of the region. Hasan Hujairi’s ‘Prelude for Orpheus’ is the most obviously eastern in flavour, a melody played on a traditional stringed instrument built upon a carpet of minor drones, before descending into atonality and chaos in exactly the same way that Orpheus’ decent into the Underworld did. Nilüfer Ormali’s harmonic voice refrain of ‘Art of Dying’ soon breaks into sub-bass drones and ringing gong, a fine depiction of the mysterious east, and is at once exotic yet unsettling, occult yet open and inviting.

Pharaoh Chromium’s ‘Requiem for Palestine’ is perhaps one of my favourite tracks on here so far, a juggernaut of sirens, voices, and drones, set against a magnificent rhythmic helicoptering backdrop. Given its title and that chopping sound, it’s ultimately difficult to avoid the political overtones inherent in this piece: I won’t dwell on the whys and wherefores, instead restricting myself by saying that this is a very powerful piece that stays long in the mind and hits home. In complete contrast is Ahmed Saleh’s second piece, ‘Khitam’, a lilting ambient composition based around a flowing keyboard phrase and rhythmical drone notes, resulting in an uplifting and soaring instrumental that somehow reminds me of Cluster’s work.

‘Parallels’ by Guy Gelem is again a composition utilising a traditional bowed instrument wailing mournfully over a drone and percussion backbone. An incensed-filled room, guests leaning on cushions around its perimeter, and a dancer with musicians entertaining them. This is about as exotic and traditional as you get on this album, unlike the following track, Tony Elieh’s juddery, staccato ‘The Dark that Matters’, which jumps and glitches, stutters and sputters, creating a fragmented picture of the region and its insecurities. ‘Surface Crack’ starts off traditionally enough, a reverberant flute solo, but then it almost enters noise/drone territory, the sounds curling in upon themselves and producing disturbed currents, like airflow over a slabby structure. A sound akin to water flooding through a constricted pipe introduces Mazen Kerbaj’s ‘The Acoustic Synthesiser’ and yes, it does sound electronic but is indisputably acoustic in origin – a very clever piece.

On the final stretch now, with four more entries to go. The first of those is Yusef Kawar’s ‘Nerves’, a teeth- and bone-grinding two minutes of mechanical/electronic noise. Just the thing to clear those brain cobwebs away. Dimitris Savva’s soothing dronescape, accompanied by lapping waves, tubular bells, and ringing tones, restores equilibrium and balance, bringing with it fabled oases and storied minarets to mind: but it also delineates its counterpart, the dark, smoky temples, and secret grottoes in hidden valleys beyond the reach of most. Then again, you may be in need of some nihilistic, misanthropic noise, and Nyctalliz will be only too happy to oblige you. ‘The Humanity Demise’ is just that, a concatenation of high-pitched noises and deep bass rumblings, essaying a crumbling and tumbling landscape in which humanity is crushed. Cenk Ergün’s closer ‘Amsterdam’ is an odd one, atonal, jumpy, unfocused, freeform but somehow still exuberant, and probably very descriptive of the Dutch city itself.

If, like me, your knowledge of experimental music is restricted to Western-based outfits and projects (with maybe a few Chinese and Japanese acts thrown in) then this compilation will help to introduce you to some cultural mavericks that are breaking boundaries in their own areas of the Middle Eastern world. This selection is more fluid in some respects, because the artists are to some extent still finding their way, and the scenes are still evolving and developing. In time, even more startling revelations will emerge from countries whose music we normally slot conveniently into the ‘world music’ pigeonhole, and show us that music is far more vital and vibrant all over the world than we think.

Available as a CD (limited to 200) + download via Bandcamp at the link below:

https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-contemporary-music-from-middle-east

Psymon Marshall 2019. 

Anti-Christ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Album: Anti-Christ Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Artist: Kristian Eidnes Andersen (sound design) with Lars Von Trier, Georg Frideric Handel, Tuva Semmingsen (mezzo soprano), Bjarte ‘Barokksolistene’ Eike (violin), Karina Gauvin (soprano), and Tempo Rubato Ensemble.

Label: Cold Spring

Catalogue no: CSR272LP

Tracklist:

     1.      Intro

     2.      L’Ascio Ch’io Pianga Prologue

     3.      Train

     4.      Foetus

     5.      Attic

     6.      L’Ascio Ch’io Pianga Epilogue

     7.      Credits Part 1

     8.      Credits Part 2

Before I go any further, I shall put my hand up and admit that I haven’t seen the film yet, although I keep intending to but never actually get around to doing so. I have to admit too that the only Von Trier production I’ve seen is The Kingdom and that was many years ago now (I did love it though). In other words I am going into this blind and without any filmic context, which some might aver could actually be a boon.

The ‘Intro’ rumbles in with a seismic growl before discordant string-like noises weave a disturbing note, in all probability setting the scene for what unfolds throughout the film. Following that is the prologue from Handel’s L’Ascio Ch’io Pianga, a sombre interpretation that also acts as a kind of emotional cue as to the tenor of Von Trier’s vision. Semmingsen’s voice is absolutely sublime and expansive, and its ethereality is no doubt assisted by its having been recorded in Copenhagen’s Kastelskirke. ‘Train’ follows, a subtle but very short rhythmical drone interlude, which in turn is followed by ‘Foetus’, a soft high wind accompanied by rumbles and shimmering chimes. ‘Attic’ is a repeat of the intro, and ‘L’Ascio Ch’io Pianga Epilogue’ is a shorter version of the ‘Prologue’ piece.

However, ‘Credits Part 1’ is on an altogether different plane, a keening wail and a mournful cry, a piece tinged heavily with deep regret and coloured in sombre hues of angst and bitterness. This is a fractured psyche writ large and laid bare, exposed to all who would look. ‘Credits Part 2’ again speaks of pain, of loss and sadness, a deep dark space that goes beyond the human and into something altogether baser and more terrifying. A ghostly breath is but a prelude to a cacophonic piano chord which eventually breaks into piece, followed on by rumbles and deep drones, counterpointed by mid-range chords, both of which flare and contract, swoop and dive, until their force is spent, or dragged down to earth by the gravity of the dark emotions ever-present here, never to be able to regain flight. The darkness here is total – a place for broken minds and bodies to hide in.

It’s fair to say that it’s a short soundtrack, combining elements of avant-garde sound design and drone, and then pitting it against the refined strains of a classical piece. The dichotomous and almost antagonistic nature of the soundtrack works to its advantage: on the one hand, we feel the pain of the couple after having lost their child, but then we also feel for them when that loss results in a tragic downward spiral of fragmentation and aberrant behaviours. Willem Dafoe’s character experiences visions, while his wife, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg, begins displaying violent sexual behaviours and sadomasochism. Purely from the standpoint of someone who hasn’t seen the film, this mixture of the almost demonic and soaring sublimity (exemplified by each style respectively) creates a disquieting tension that would only highlight the couple’s divergent reactions. One can only imagine how the loss of a child would affect the parents – it’s both heart-and soul-breaking. Here is an essay in the ultimate tragedy, and the ways that people cope with it.

Kristian Eidnes Andersen’s sound design is extraordinary, utilising an arsenal of instruments of his (and Von Trier’s) devising; blowing on blades of grass, rubbing stones together, water, horsehair bowed against twigs, and recordings made inside Andersen’s own body. These were them uploaded into a sampler, mixed together, transposed in pitch, and layered. What came out was something unearthly and unpleasant, creating a ‘horror’ ambience for a film that isn’t horror. It creates unease and a heightened sense of psychological disturbance that’s more than the sum of its parts. Less is more, as Andersen said in an interview – and he’s right.

Forget the fact that, in total, there’s only about 18 minutes of music, and instead revel in the anxiety, turmoil, and disquiet that these short pieces inspire. Coupled with Handel’s masterpiece, the musical, emotional, and textural tensions created as a result lift it out of the ordinary, and the juxtapositions of all these elements delineate their own narrative of two minds and souls forever shattered and battered to the extreme, by an event that’s dreadful beyond imagining. Also, marvel at Andersen’s ability to compress something as complex as a human state of mind into sounds that explicate those emotions perfectly and succinctly – now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to have to hunt the film down (and the previous two in the Depression trilogy – Melancholia and Nymphomaniac) and get the full experience.

Antichrist Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will be released on September 6^th on 12” vinyl in two editions: Eden Olive etched vinyl (in an edition of 250 from Cold Spring only) and standard black etched vinyl.

http://coldspring.co.uk/discography/csr272LP/#.XWk08i5KjIU

You can also order either version from Bandcamp, in addition to a download:

https://coldspring.bandcamp.com/album/antichrist-o-s-t-lars-von-trier-csr272lp

For an insight into Kristian Eidnes Andersen’s methods of creating the soundtrack then watch this short video:

https://youtu.be/-UTEVJHnxk0

Psymon Marshall 2019.

Various - Palaces of Darkness

Album: Palaces of Darkness

Artist: Various

Label: Black Mara

Catalogue no: BM-22

Tracklist:

     1.      Sol Mortuus – Muv-Anki

     2.      Corona Barathri –The Kingdom of Nav

     3.      Nubiferous – Xvarenah

     4.      Mrako-Su – Autumn of Time

     5.      Ad Lucem Tenebratium –Spirit of Water

It is only through darkness that light is revealed, a fact that many are reluctant to acknowledge. Our whole existences are intertwined with dualities: light/dark, good/evil, Heaven/Hell, up/down, and light/heavy. Without the presence of these opposites, we wouldn’t be able to comprehend the world. But it’s not quite as clear cut as some would have you believe: the ancient Chinese realised that reality isn’t delineated strictly through black and white, but there is an interdependence and connection between them, and that the conversation flowing between one with the other is what constitutes the basis of the reality we live within – hence the philosophical conception of yin and yang.

Darkness, as a result, is often misconstrued, in the mistaken belief that its only attribute is concealment. But, as this five-track ritual ambient compilation from Russian label Black Mara attests, it also possesses the capability of revealing. As a prosaic example, on a clear, cloudless, and moonless night the darkness announces the glories of the starry heavens, bestowing upon the observer the only comprehendible view of infinity we’re ever likely to understand. In the same way, the temples of the mind, built within the darkness of the inner world, can only be revealed in all their magnificence against the black backdrop.  

We are ushered into the act of constructing the foundations of the spiritual temple through the auspices of Sol Mortuus’ ‘Muv-Anki’ – it begins at the moment when the sun has set and the sky has begun purpling. It’s the time when the world subsides into quietude, the interval before the occult forces of creation and conception stir themselves at the behest of the officiants. Slowly, with infinite deliberation, the materials for the manifestation of the Palaces of Darkness and Night coalesce into being.

If ‘Muv-Anki’ is the prelude to the creation, then Corona Barathri’s ‘The Kingdom of Nav’ is the invocation, a declaration of purpose and intent to the gods themselves. A woman’s voice calls out, evoking the genius loci into manifestation, seeking its cooperation in the task. The plea is answered: subterranean breaths and twisted drones emerge from the very soil beneath her feet, and a tribal rhythm materialises, creating both the blueprint and the framework for the work ahead. Lights shimmer, waver, float, and pulse randomly, perhaps waiting for a signal. And then, under some secret direction from an unseen and unfelt source, lines of force begin marshalling and the blobs of light attain purpose and function, moving intently to assigned places.

An astringent metallic ringing drone then pierces through, announcing that it’s Nubiferous’ turn to delineate the evolving architecture. The word ‘Xvarenah’ has power here, establishing and inviting an indwelling spirit to take up residence. A resonating, chiming bell is that invitation, a strange attractor to which an entity will gravitate. Without its power, the building is nothing more than an empty shell, a pretty façade with no other use. By the time we reach the epilogue of the track, we get a sense that such a guardian deity has assented to share its power and assumed residency.

‘The Autumn of Time’ begins with a solitary flute, around which faint drones interweave, the palace now almost complete. Power is beginning to accumulate, their vortices swirling and coiling around its metaphysical columns and cloisters, and then funnelling into the Holy of Holies inhabiting its centre. Power isn’t something that amasses in an instant – it builds up gradually, and only attains its apotheosis through the energies of its adherents over time. Mrako-Su’s contribution builds up subtly, evolving into a quickening heartbeat, incrementally filling the esoteric spaces with pulsing function and potential.

Ad Lucem Tenebratium’s ‘Spirit of Water’ is the conclusion, the final consecration when all the forces, both physical and mystical, converge and manifest fully. Chanting now occupies the palace’s internal spaces, resonating through all the multifarious planes of existence and confirming it as a nexus of spiritual power. Energies spark and flicker, gravid with life and possibilities, ready to congregate in the name of some greater purpose.

All five tracks together form a kind of esoteric narrative, an inner one that has its parallels in the real world: it’s almost a spiritual manual for building the inner temple. The palaces referred to here aren’t the dwellings of earthly kings and queens, but of the spiritual entities where the real power exists: those streams of energies which, focused on an arcane singularity, exert enormous if unfelt and unseen influences on the world around us. Each of these pieces takes a chapter of this mystical story, delineating the stages one goes through in order to achieve whatever goal is ultimately focused upon. It also warns us that darkness is as essential to the understanding of those forces as light is, thereby creating balance. Too much of one creates imbalance and chaos to the detriment of the other.

Taken together, this is a deeply mystical journey through the dark recesses of power and alignment, the steps necessary to manifesting one’s own Palace of Darkness. If nothing else, it emphasises that darkness should never be shunned, but incorporated along with the light into every part of one’s life.

Available as a digital download and CD with a hardcover A5 book, attached photos, and a pendant smelling of juniper and spruce – purchase from link below:

https://blackmara.bandcamp.com/album/palaces-of-darkness

Psymon Marshall 2019. 

Various - The Black Orb.

Album: The Black Orb

Artist: Various

Label: Distorted Void

Catalogue no: [DV-9]

Tracklist:

     1.      Infinexhuman featuring Scythralisa – Burial Rhythm

     2.      ABBILDUNG – Dwellers of Dark Earths

     3.      Alphaxone – Silent Highlands

     4.      Uzbazur – The Witches Ritual in the Wood

     5.      RNGMNN – Euforia

     6.      Adonai Atrophia – Yliaster

     7.      Endless Voice of Entropy – Path into the Nothing

     8.      Jeton Hoxha – Bowed Metal

     9.      Seetyca – Limbs Bent and then Broken

     10.  Chris Russell – Coronium Ore

I find that compilations can be troublesome creatures, mainly for the fact that most times it’s a bit of a lottery. On the other hand, of course, they can also be the gateway to a wonderful assortment of unknown treasures, introducing you to projects you might never have encountered otherwise. Another drawback for the reviewer is that only the highlights are the focus of the review, unintentionally giving out the impression that the other acts aren’t up to scratch.

Infinexhuma’s contribution, assisted by Scythralisa, crashes in on a wave of cymbal-like sounds upon the shores of death, before the transition to another existence is essayed by a floating, hanging refrain, a physical litter made of particles of light heading upwards. Following that, ABBILDUNG’s (‘Dwellers of Dark Earths’) track takes the opposite path, travelling downward into subterranean realms, where the traveller meets with brooding, Hadean silences and the sighs, wails, and laboured breathings of the dead. It’s a mournful, empty composition, indicative of the anguish and grief-stricken state of this depressing place.

We ascend once more, this time to scale the heights, to fly amongst the lofty wind riven highlands in Alphaxone’s ‘Silent Highlands’ – the only inhabitants here are raptors and quarrelling corvids, and the peaks are perpetually blanketed with snow. Nevertheless, the mountains are still magnificent in their isolation, majestic in their ice-clothed flanks. It’s an exhilarating flight, the wind carrying us onward, and the landscape below rushing towards and away from us with astonishing rapidity. At some point though, Uzbazur’s ‘The Witches Ritual in the Wood’ draws us to a dark clump of trees, and our imaginary airborne flight swoops downwards into its midst. Here we find a gathering of the wise-women, enacting an age-old ceremony of connecting with the powers contained within nature and the earth. Spirits abound here, animated by the fires and incenses of the celebrants, whose voices call forth the secret beings behind all creation. Ultimately, as in RNGMNN’s ‘Euforia’, the ritual’s amassing of power results in an ecstatic climax and connection through release, bringing with it an acknowledgement of the reciprocal nature of the transactions, that one side cannot exist without the other, and that the lines of power flow in both directions. ‘Euforia’ speaks of the quiet strength behind the processes of the natural order, and that as a whole nature cannot be trifled without detrimental consequences.

‘Yliaster’ shatters like glass and breaks into millions of sharp pieces: Adonai Atrophia’s offering is the splintering comedown after the high of communion, the reintroduction of the consciousness into the reality of the everyday. It has its advantages: we see things with renewed eyes, the colours are brighter, the scents more beautiful. Yet again, on Endless Voice of Entropy’s ‘Path into the Nothing’, the realisation that nature is alive, ever-present, and always fulfilling, sends our souls onto the trail of separation from the material, the egoless state of non-being, where nothing is just as meaningful and substantial as the matter that composes our existence. A prolonged and sustained carpet of shimmering noise propels us to the point, the ultimate singularity, which encompasses all in nothing.

‘Bowed Metal’, meanwhile, is that moment when one realises and senses the movement within this state of no-thing. Jeton Hoxha proposes here that perhaps activity and inactivity are just alternate perspectives, viewed from different angles, on the same quality, and that they should be viewed as the same thing.

Seetyca’s ‘Limbs Bent and Then Broken’ veers away somewhat from the prevailing ambiences of the preceding pieces, but it’s sparseness and bell-like ringing qualities interspersed with quiet notices of some kind of activity nevertheless feel right at home here. This is an elevated kind of ambience, a diffuse and particulated essay in the experience of achieving an exalted state, the acquaintance with a stage of spiritual attainment above the normal. It’s an act of breaking away from encumbrance and constriction.

Finally, we come to the last track, Chris Russell’s ‘Coronium Ore’. A prosaic title for a lilting, glimmering, scintillating piece of music, a dive into the perfect union of all things, material and spiritual, the reconciliation of opposites, and the reunion of all negative and positive qualities. It’s timeless and dimensionless, is limitless and boundless, and yet it occupies a space that is immeasurably small.

I have written far more than I intended to, however, upon listening to it as a whole it dawned upon me that there was a narrative thread binding it all together, and that if I omitted one piece then it would remain indecipherable and obtuse. It flows effortlessly, the compiler perhaps knowing that compilations must possess a rhythm and flow of their own, and that that aspect of it is as essential as the music itself. Let me end this exposition by saying that this is immensely worth your time and extremely rewarding.

Available as a download only from here:

https://distortedvoid.bandcamp.com/album/the-black-orb

Psymon Marshall 2019.