Anthony Pateras & Erkki Veltheim — The Slow Creep Of Convenience
The forty-nine-minute piece brings together two respected figures from the Australian experimental scene- Anthony Pateras on the pipe organ, and Erkki Veltheim on electric Violin. The track was recorded in 2016 in the Church of All Nations in Melbourne, and the acoustics of the building really add to the rich, shifting & pressing layers of drones on display here.
The two instruments are set into a simmering & sawing dirge- with nothing really harmonic or pleasant for most of the work, though in it’s last minutes a slight brighter & more hopeful moments appear. Together the pair creates this pressing, extremely malevolent & penetrating mass of sound. As the work moves on the whole thing just seems to build & build with it’s pressing intensity- with one layer after another of sustain & simmer been added to the mix. The drone textures shift between brooding & thick smolders, searing & shrill sustained bays, and a blend of these two extremes. At times it really feels like one's head may sudden pop with the building pressure of the drone mass here, and really this nicely adds to the entrancing intensity of the whole thing. It really is amazing how the pair manage to keep build & build the searing & pressing power of the whole thing for near on an hour
The Slow Creep Of Convenience is certainly not a drone work for one to either mellow-out too, or drift off with. But if you’re after sustained & often seared modern composition that puts you in an intense & unbreakable grip this could well be of interest.