In the dictionary of improvisational ideas, there is Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) as a pioneer of the horror vacui aesthetic (i.e., plentitude ad infinitum), but that is an entirely different beast. Lanz and Rehnhert are perfectly willing to let you hear the individual sound sources for what they are, but these are then so quickly diverted and repurposed that there is no space for listening, no comfy armchair to settle into, which makes the approach all the more infuriating, and I guess that's very much the point. I cannot summarize or provide a rational narrative for what transpires over the two tracks, both because of the impossibility of measuring enough distance between myself and the album, and more importantly, because to do so would enact a kind of violence to the process to which the two musicians have committed themselves. As I noted, this does not make for an enjoyable listen, but once the process reveals itself, all that is left is the grimy desire to subvert the anticipatory structure of time, to embrace (or reject) the event horizon as it is, without parsing it into digestible nuggets of sonic information.

 

Fans of process-heavy improvisation will most likely find something redeeming here, even if that means you just can't bear to keep on listening. Others may just jump off the train, knowing full well that the impulse to do so is still Lanz and Rehnhert's system. For more