
Rudolf Eb.er - Om Kult: Ritual Practice of Conscious Dying - Vol. [Om Kult/Schimpfluch Associates - 2018]Om Kult: Ritual Practice of Conscious Dying - Vol. I is the first step into a new world of sonic unsettlement from Austrian sound artist Rudolf Eb.er – who is one of the key minds behind the infamous Schimpfluch Gruppe collective. This recent thirty track CD brings together elements of very subtle psycho ambience, odd body sounds, backwards texts, amped-up tape hiss, drowsy siren waves, creepy field recordings, and all manner of sound unsettlement. To create a album that’s meant to present occult knowledge and techniques for the transition from life to death. The album unbalances you from it’s very beginning with the first track "Induktions Meditation" that sees a blend of hissing tape drone, sustained & unwell siren wave buzz, and distant rushing water sounds- you feel as if at any second something very strange is going to dart out at you, but it never does- with Eb.er just hold you tight in the alien & uneasy sonic tension.
As we move through the remaining twenty-nine tracks- he keeps you held in this odd, murky, and terminally unwell sonic landscape- moving from mixers of strange scraps, distant hovering pitch sustains, and distant textural weaves. Onto more forceful & fear-inducing blends of higher pitched siren wave drillings, that around surrounded by maps of wet & crunching textures. Through to odd & almost inhuman breathing patterns, that are blended with stripped-back wood percussion hits, pitch sliding psycho ambience, twitching alien percussion & distant animal wails. It safe to say that over the albums just over an hour & five minutes runtime, you never feel conformable, but you certainly are entertained & terminal creeped-out, as each new track offers up its own new strange tones, weird textural blends, and the generally feeling of murky alien-ness.
I can see Om Kult : Ritual Practice of Conscious Dying - Vol. I appeal to both fans of wonky ambience, bizarre field recordings, and strange textural adventures. As there is no doubt about it with this release Rudolf Eb.er has created a very tangible sonic landscape of unsettlement- really making one feel like their either lost in a strange other reality or on some drowsy surreal & unwell planet. Here’s looking forward to vol 2 , of this predicted three release series.      Roger Batty
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