Cremation Lily — The Processes and Instruments of Normal People; Tr

Zen Zsigo's Cremation Lily have quietly racked up a considerable discography of around three dozen releases since their inception in 2011. After starting out producing a familiar mix of distortion led tape noise, power electronics and drone, Zsigo has over the last couple of years opened up the project, imbibing a distinctly introspective take on his coastal environs in the South of England by way of an engagement with dub-wise ambient techno and increasingly complex melodious arrangements. This isn't to say that he's ditched his pedals and tape deck, but rather as the six excellent compositions on this curiously titled record demonstrate he's found a way of filtering the uncanny and often harsh quality of avant-garde and industrial music through a reflective and at times beautiful combination of sound and place. Add to this that the set is released along with a small pamphlet of photographs by Jennifer & Zen Zsigo documenting their time in Hastings, then it's clear that this is something of a statement release.

The first track October Sails opens - as much of Cremation Lily's music does - with treated field recordings. Waves and the crunching of pebbles along the beach at Hastings pave the way for a dreamy tape derived drone before fragments of melody and percussive elements blow in, putting wind in the sails so to speak. There's a lot of industrial-esque techno material around at the moment with Vatican Shadow, Ancient Methods and producers around the Samurai Horo label providing many of the high points. But I find Zsigo's use of the canonical drum machinists tool box to be more in keeping with Wolfgang Voigt or the deep-listening dub constructions of the Echospace label. Dreamy in short, rather than thumping. The brief Coastal Path, if we Were Alone is striking in its sparse combination of untreated coastal soundscape and minimal piano. It's the furthest Zsigo has yet gone from his older style, dampening down the effects while amplifying the intimate quality of his environmental and acoustic sounds.

The stand out piece for me is a reprise of The Currents Mislead from 2016, here given the suffix (Hand in hand). At nearly double the length of the original version it's given time to build up from a simple synthesizer hook around which are added widescreen ambient pads, bright effects and more technoid rhythmic elements. The Gas influence is evident as is a subtle use of cut-up tape and effects. If there could be such a thing as a romantic concrete-ambient techno anthem, this could be it. The addition to the original title is symbolic of Zsigo's openly personal approach to his music. Following on is the title track which harks back to some of Cremation Lily's more abstract compositions of tape and electronics, although the simple searching melody which repeats throughout anchors the piece in the present.

The same could also be said for the penultimate piece Quiet Preperation (Timetable) which rolls on a woozy ambient dub refrain amid more minimal piano and tape noise. Sunset over the South Coast, the dying light of the summer sun, long shadows of two people holding hands; these vistas conjured by Cremation Lily are suffuse with pathos. Dominik Fernow once claimed that his Frozen Niagara Falls record was a collection of love songs. As tangentially plausible as this might be (love after all not always being a bed of roses) I had my doubts. No such thing here as The Processes and Instruments... is writ large as something of a love letter. Whether it's to a person or a place, or somewhere where the two come together it is nevertheless as romantic an "industrial" record as I've ever heard.

The final track Rose Water is a hesitantly blissed out ambient work-out deploying more of those coastal field recording and most impressively violin, which draws arching glissandi around the electronics; it's tinged with a little melancholy, thus contributing to that hesitancy. England's coastal towns have long been neglected, subject to a policy of managed decline or used as sinks for the mental health and child support problems the cities would prefer to disavow. Either side of Islington on Sea (Brighton) there are places where unemployment rates far outstrip the national average, and in winter the seaside can be a lonely place. There is a sense of this perhaps in the intimacy of these tracks. In spite of the often upbeat tone this is not music for crowds, or for dancing to. This is resolutely personal music, and all the better for it.

In a field which is often criticised for being either coarse or abstract, Cremation Lily have achieved an uncommon level of pathos and authenticity while staying within the lineage of his older works. This is the sound of an artist refining their craft, ditching the derivative and finding a voice. It's a lovely voice.