Owners Of Knowledge. — Inner Self
Inner Self (შინაგანი თავისუფლება) takes in three twenty-five-minute tracks of dense & mysterious soundscaping from Mtskheta, Georgia‘s Owners of knowledge. Each track creates its wall-like sonic environments from overlaid ambience, field recordings and amassed talking- for an entrancing, at points rewardingly puzzling ride.
The release first appeared on LOUD Silence- but is now getting a digital-only release on Owners of Knowledge's own bandcamp. The cover artwork been a white, grey, and black textured matt- which to me looks like a physical wall that’s had white PVA unevenly put on it. The release can be found here
We open with “Future”, and I’d say this is the more easily sonically defined of the three tracks- as all of the elements are fairly easily defined/ heard. We have a warbling/ heavenly voices loop, lo-fi rattling and rushing water tones, and a distant hovering drone. To me, it felt akin to like watching sped-up & looped footage of some so-called miracle be it someone suddenly walking, hearing, or seeing – which is filmed/ captured in hazy and swirling monochrome.
Next, we have “Deconstruction”- this is built around a dense weave of several similar toned mumbling voices, which is topped with more mid-ranged American voices- which mainly seem to be women. You can’t make out what is been said at any level- yet there is a sense/ uniformity to the whole thing. Over time, like conventional walled noise you do start to make out patterns/ shapes within the mass- with the most rewarding thing being of course your brain trying to make sense/ full shape of it, but you never do.
Finally, we have “Fire”- which is made up of a selection of steady galloping tones- there are several mid-paced rattling-like spins, and one more pronounced tumbling/ knocking tone. It sounds like either the sound of an old water wheel or as its title suggests flames- but these are been sped right up to an unnatural level.
If you enjoy more organic/ field recording/voice-based based wall-craft Inner Self is a must!. I do hope Owners of Knowledge does more work in this setting, as there are some really wonderful possibilities down this route.