Bionulor — Sacred Mushroom Chant

The project Bionulor began in 2006, a one-man experimental/ambient project founded by Sebastian Banaszczyk- he bases all the projects recordings on “recycled sound”.  Mainly he builds his musical foundation on one sample (or fragment) and then processes the snippet adding or expanding the sound it was built on. 

Sacred Mushroom Chant is no different.  On the five pieces presented here sounds are based on shamanic chants, a Japanese traditional song, Neil Armstrong, Marcel Duchamp and Sebastian Banaszczyk himself.

Each of the five pieces thrusts the listener into a strange, cosmic setting.  Sometimes the only familiarity is the spoken word subject Banaszczyk has used.  On the whole each piece is a juxtaposition of organic and man-made.  On “Scrd.Mshrm.Chnt.” intermittent beeps and swirls collide into a cocoon of cosmic electronic sounds, yet there is a human (or animalistic) feeling that we are in the presence of a living breathing being.  Both “NHN-B” and “NL” seem to be (at least through my ears) are very fine tribute to Kubricks 2001.  This is in contrast to “DCHMP”; where we get the feeling of surfing on a radio dial, barely tuning into different frequencies, yet the repetitive spoken sample lulls us into a meditative state.  The last piece “Nic Nie Jest Prawdziwe” (the English translation to this Polish phrase is “Nothing is True (Genuine). Here Banaszczyk loops the phrase over and over adding reverbed sound and ambient white noise.  It almost borders on the industrial; yet again the repetitiveness of it becomes hypnotic.

All in all in this is a very interesting work from the Bionulor project.  It will be fascinating to see where and how he expands on his basis of  his sonic operations.  Even more so it will be compelling to see if he will collaborate with other artists to build on his themes.