Lethe — 1989 Confessions, Vol. Two
Lethe is one of the many projects of Minneapolis based noise & ambient artist Cory Strand. It started in May 2012, and has so far amassed around 12 or so CDR releases(with many been multi disc sets), and these releases have seen the project moving it’s sound from: hopeless drone matter, through to punishingly HNW, onto death ambience, through to greyed ambient sub-tone studies, and beyond. The project releases have taking on such varied themes as: bleak woodland isolation, David Lynch, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, HP Lovecraft & of course Ted Bundy.
Like the first volume in this series this second volume utilizes confessional interviews made by Bundy in 1989, just before he was put to death. Also just like the first volume the interview segments used focus on a single victim, and in this case it’s Donna Gail Manson- a 19 year old who disappeared at Evergreen State College, Washington in March 1974, and her body has never recovered. Bundy claims to have left her corpse on Taylor Mountain(in the Sonoma Mountains range California), and burned her head down to ash in his girlfriends fireplace.
The slim line CDR case features a doubled sided black & white cover- on the front there’s a picture of a rather thoughtful look Bundy. And on the inside we have a picture of Ms Manson, along with text discussing what Budy claimed to have done to her.
First up we have “She’s Up In The Montains”, and this just over fifty minute track takes up the lion share of the CDR’s runtime. It starts off with a very bleak sounding ambient rumble- this is slowly fading-in, and to begin with is very quiet. By around the 7th minute the ambient texture has become a bit more defined (and slightly louder), and now it sounds more like a repetitive & stark winter wind like distant billowing. At around the eleven minute mark a more detailed, though still fairly quiet, ambient pattern starts up- this is mixture of bleak swelling ‘n’ billowing ambient tone, which is weaved with the occasional mid-range almost harmonic simmer ‘n’ stark rise. By around the twenty minute mark the ambient drift has subtle shifted again and now we get a mixture of fixed ‘n’ grim drone, which at it’s base has a stark rippling harmonic texture. Over the next ten or so mintues both elements seem to become more pronounced & pressing- yet the volume or power of the textures never really increase beyond a certain point; which of course keeps the whole thing stark, bleak, unsettling, yet still withdrawn & haunted. The last twenty or so mintues of the track see Strand move between grey billows & sudden almost harmonic swells ‘n’ rises, but the tones once more became less defined & hazed again, before slowly fading back into silence. The track very much conjures up grim images of undiscovered human remains, bleak winter wind licked mountain scapes, and the troubled & earthbound stuck spirit of Ms Manson
Secondly we have “That Night Is Like Some Kind Of Dream”, and this track comes in just over the twenty seven minute mark. This track opens with a faint & difficult to define wavering ambient throb ‘n’ slowed purr- this part of the track has quite a nice unsettling & disorientating feel about it. As the track progresses towards it’s 5th minute the throb seems to become slight more active- yet it’s still very clipped & controlled in it’s feel. Over time your mind starts to become a little more accustomed to the wavering throb, yet from time to time the pitch shifts just a slightly & you get a nice feeling of slight disorientation or slight shift in ones balance. On the whole this track is less shifting than the first track, but it’s still most effective in creating this very tangible feel of pressing homicidal need, compacted fear, and a hovering unpleasant-ness.
I really hope that Strand decides to do another volume in this series, as he’s managed to conjure up a very bleak, disturbed & chilling atmosphere on this second volume. It be also great to maybe see him branch out into other serial killer confession- I think the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, Arthur Shawcross(The Genesee River Killer), or Dennis Rader(BTK killer) would work as perfect subjects for a similar treatment. This release came in a edition 25 copies- so you still might get luck, and managed to snag a copy- it’s certainly well worth a look if your interested in stark & chilling ambience.