Dunam — Zerem

Dunam is an Israeli duo who creating drone and ambient music.  Their debut album, titled Zerem, was released as either a cassette/ digital release by Midira Records.  The pair of Dana Dektor and Aviv Stem play electric guitar and no input mixer, respectively.

The tone set by the opening piece is melancholic and ethereal, something of a throwback to the coldly romantic progressions of 80's Cocteau Twins and other 4AD bands.  The slightly distorted, heavily chorused guitar tone is characteristic of older goth music.  The album is frequently tagged as ambient, but the guitar performance is quite active and energetic.  This could be called a post-punk album if you merely added a rhythm section.  More repetitious riffs continue to play in the backdrop as surges of expressive feedback and wailing harmonic notes are overdubbed in the foreground.

Initially, Aviv Stem's ambient material tends to take something of a backseat to the guitar, as the guitar is mixed very loudly with a sharp, trebley tone.  This is something of an unprocessed, DIY feeling production, with acoustics that sound like a garage or basement.  That said, Aviv's ambiences fit with the mood of the guitar playing well even where they are subtle, creating a sense of movement, of rushing air and howling wind, as he manipulates currents of white noise and humming boosted noise floor signal.  In the second piece, the titular "Zerem", Dektor pulls back the intense drama of the guitar into simpler minimalist repetitions, and in moments like these Aviv Stem shines.

I'd perhaps place the album closer to a moody jam band vibe than drone or ambient, sounding like the breakdown section of a long psychedelic rock improvisation.  The album becomes more immersive as it plays, with the tracks "Dam", "Zoleg" and "Mata" melding together in a kind of mountain sojourn.  In this part of the album, Dektor accentuates the glimmering harmonics in his guitar sound, strumming hard and letting resonances ring out across the simulated landscape.

By the end of the recording, I'm impressed by the natural sense this duo has of bringing a powerful emotion out of their minimalist approach, and guiding the flow of energy smoothly as the sound moves.  A short album of thirty-three minutes, it makes a powerful statement even with its sparse, rhythmically ungrounded style.  It feels rather raw and unformed, but this is not a bad thing, and I look forward to future endeavors by this duo and seeing how they could develop this style.  Adding additional members, I think, would be an interesting way to flesh the sound out. To pick up a copy of the album, in it's tape or digital from drop in here