Edward Sol — Sun Storm Rampage
All sounds here were recorded to digital recorder with no use of edits or overdubs. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Sol began his musical evolution performing in indie-rock bands during the 90’s and creating soundtracks to short films (utilizing tape loops, field recordings and vintage synths). In 2001, he started Quasi Pop Records, as vehicle for disseminating experimental music of all stripes. The genesis of the material found on “Sun Storm Rampage” can be traced to 2006 when Mr. Sol began to focus on combining material from a variety of experimental sources. He utilizes electro-acoustic music, structured noise, tape loops, found sounds, synthesizers, and countless others methods derived from his wide sonic palette.
Mr. Sol states that the art is inspired by supernatural solar activity and the mathematics of Pythagoras. That seems rather fitting, as the art displays a circular pattern of earth-toned triangles descending into a black void in the center. It looks almost akin to a Mandala, a symbol used in eastern religions to represent the universe. In that sense it seems appropriate for the music at hand.
“Sun Storm Rampage” is composed of one 45+ minute track. I must admit that I’m not really into live albums as they usually suffer from substandard sound quality. I was further worried as the release is described as having “some uncritical technical defects.” Thankfully this is a pretty high quality live recording and the technical defects were not discernable to my ears. Through 45 minutes, Mr.Sol creates a diverse and dynamic sound collage that incorporates both harsh and meditative components. Angelic chanting, harsh noise blasts, wobbly oscillators, static droning, radio static, electric buzzing, are just some of the panoply of sounds that are found on this album. Call it sound collage, but really well thought out and composed sound collage. The trajectory of the piece seems follow the formula of a sets of sounds being displaced by a new set of sounds every few minutes in succession. I don’t use the term formula as a pejorative. It works well for the piece by the keeping the sounds fluid and interesting.
As my first foray into the work of Mr. Sol, “Sun Storm Rampage” is an effective masterstroke; a culmination of years dabbling in the experimental sound arts. As someone with a short attention span, it says a lot about an artist to keep me on board a 45 minute ride. But it was an immersive and interesting journey. One that is no doubt a strong statement in Mr. Sol’s long back catalog.