PsôM — La Transhumance Du Vide
PsôM is the project of Eric Duriez, who resides in the north eastern French city of Metz. I first became aware of Mr Duriez work from the self titled HNW Quartet from last year, which saw him join with three other wall-noise artists. According to discogs, other than the mentioned HNW Quartet release, this is his only his second release. Which I really found quite surprising, as both sides of tape are well composed, wholly interesting, and fairly original additions to the wall-noise/ ambient genre.
So first up on side A we have “Lever le doute”, and this opens with a very taut & oppressive blend of tight chop bound static patter-nation, and sustained grey drone pitch.
With-in less than a minute a slow circling, errier, yet sluggishly harmonic ambient drift comes into play- as the track progresses Duriez skilful shifts the drone/ ambient undercarriage from bleakly simmering one note sustains, to the more slowly unfolding ambient drifts- which at times have almost an string type quality to them. The chopping static patter is quite thin-yet-detailed in it’s blend of spitting/ cold pelting texturing, and as with the drone element he is seemingly adjusting this very subtle from time to time. At around the seven minute mark the chopping elements drifts back, and we are left with a simmering-yet fading low-end billow, and the moody & brood sweeps of bleak low end chant like ambient tones. By around the mid-way point of this twenty minute track we are just left with the slowly drifting ebb of chanting & stark dark ambient sways. In the tracks last six or so minutes the more textured noise elements are skilful & carefully added back in over the pared back chanting & ambient elements- at first we get controlled & stripped rumbling, then over time this grows & expands, adding in more tonal ripples, slow-mo tears, and in the end a sluggish type jittering patter. By the last minute the track has really returned to it’s opening setting of chopping tight static, and this moody sustained like ambient billow- which now sounds more horn like.
Flipping over to side B , and we have the track “Ceìleìbrer le soupçon”. And this opens up with a blend of billow ‘n’ roasting noise textures, and spaced-out/ reverb stretched chants. As the track progresses the noise textures become more taut yet detailed, bringing a simmering rattling to the growing billow ‘n’ roast juddering bound elements. In the background the chants become less spaced & more hypnotic in their feel, summing up a real feeling of ancient ritual & simmer/ taut dread. At around the 6th minute I can make out a drifting & melancholic like ambient repetitive refrain and this bleak & deep sort of solo string simmer to it. Also as time ticks on this slow, gracefully, yet dark horn simmer comes into play, and this brings to mind a picture in ones mind of a slow & considered ritual taking place in some dilapidated temple as the sun is slowly going down. I guess this side track is more building & less vaired than the first side track- but it’s certainly just as worthy creating a blend of focused wall-noise texturing & bleak ritual dread
As with reviewing a lot of any one genre, one starts to get a little jaded when a scenes releases seem to become a little samey & predicable. So La Transhumance Du Vide was a real pleasure & surprise, as Mr Duriez clearly likes & appreciates the wall noise genre, yet he also wants to try & put his own spin/ take on it. I can’t wait to hear what he does next!.