ASVA — Futurist's Against The Ocean

In the world of contemporary music, hypes follow each other faster than Europe can say "No!" to thenew constitution. I would not be surprised if, following hot on the heals of the stoner rock hype,the interest of the general public would be shifting towards doom metal. The recent success of Sunn O))) concerts in Belgium and The Netherlands surely hints at this. As with all hypes, one has to look at the originators to find fresh, new ideas - leaders, not followers. In this respect, ASVA scoresmuch better than a lot of bands who will follow in their wake, for one of ASVA's founding members is Stuart Dahlquist of Sunn O))) and Burning Witch fame. Dahlquist has brought in some otherluminaries, like John Schuller (Master Musicians of Bukkake), B.R.A.D. (Burning Witch), andTrey Spruance (Secret Chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle).

ASVA truly benefits from this clash of the titans. It enables them to open up their sound to variousinfluences, not all of them coming from the restricted world of metal. Opener Kill The Dog, Tie ThemUp, Then Take The Money is a track fashioned according to an archetypal doom metal template, with poundingdrums and downtuned guitar riffs attempting to reverse your intestines. Buteven the end of it with its whirling tubular bells already hints at other and greater things to come.After a good 14 minutes, it segues into an amorphous slab of slow-moving noise that one would ratherexpect from more left-looking artists than from a band which is rooted so firmly in metal. Guitars, bass,and cymbals circle around each other like a pack of hungry wolves moving in on their victim.

But the albumsaves its biggest secret until well over six minutes into the third track, tellingly titled Fortune - when singer Jessika Kenney (Black Horse, Gamelan Pacifica) opens her throat, you will simply not believe your ears. What we have here is a classically trained singer who is equally at home tackling 16th century madrigals as she isoperating in a Balinese idiom. The intensity of her voice is almost without parallel in non-academic music: one has to look to extreme vocalists like Diamanda Galás to find a peer. However, there is a clarity and openness in Kenney's voice that is almost the opposite of Galás's asphyxiating squeal. Kenney remindsme, in this respect, more of Montserrat Figueras singing the 13th century El Cant de laSibil·la.The addition of Kenney to the line-up opens vast possibilities for expanding the ASVA sound in directionsthat no other band in this genre is likely to touch. Only if Sunn O))) were to hire her for one their much admired sessions are similar results to be expected. Fortunately, Kenney's contribution iscontinued in the fourth and final track, Beyond the Well of Living and Seeing. Her voice on this isso strong that the piece attains a transcendental quality because of it.

Already sounding like they have been doing this for decades, it will be great to see what this outfit will be capable of after some extensive touring and growing asa band. But with a debut album this strong (and beautifully recorded by Randall Dunn and Billy Anderson),I think it is safe to say that ASVA will, with Sunn O))), soon become the heroes of this particularniche of extreme music. Now, if only Trey can convince his band members to listen to 20th centuryclassical composers Giacinto Scelsi and Iancu Dumitrescu, we are sure to be on the brinkof discovering what the formation of the Universe sounds like...