Tele.S.The​rion — The Chapel

Well now, two worlds of obscuration meet on this one cd: black metal and academia. The former can often use vague, clouded, indistinct means to present itself; whilst the latter aims at total clarity, but in doing so often uses language so complex as to return it to obscurity.

Thus we have packaging, printed in black on black, with clear nods towards black metal - it even describes itself as “Acousmatic black metal”. This description is part of a convoluted, academic text on the back of the cd packaging, which tells us that the tracks are designed to be played simultaneously in order to create a “penetrable projection area”. It also suggests that the listener duplicates the cd and plays it through several devices at once. I can’t do this, and thats where the cd starts to unravel…

All seven tracks (named “Black Painting I”, “Black Painting II”, “Black Painting III”, and so on) use a mixture of guitar noise, feedback, vocalisation, reverb and delay; and these are combined to produce variations on a theme, as it were. (Its almost as if they are impressionistic tone-poems on the idea of black metal.) Hence we hear essentially quite minimal tracks of droning guitar, moaning and swooping guitar noise and vocal drone; though the closest anything comes to a riff, is the two note motif used near the beginning of “Black Painting III”. Whilst the tracks do all sound similar, they’re certainly not the same; though two pieces, “Black Painting II” and “Black Painting V”, do stand out from the others - the first being a drifting series of muffled breaths or explosive sounds, and the second being a track of stealthy, low tones.

So, whilst the tracks are different enough, the fact remains that to my ears, they do sound rather slight in themselves. I’m not sure if this is precisely what my ears are hearing, or if they have been influenced by the knowledge that the pieces are meant to be played simultaneously. Because, since Tele.S.Therion have framed the album in this way, its somewhat difficult for me to listen to the tracks as separate pieces - my brain is convinced its missing out on something… There are moments of great eeriness though, where the minimal approach works in Tele.S.Therion’s favour; the end section of “Black Painting VII” is a fantastic piece of unsettling drone, with voice, hiss and a whistling tone. The ultra-minimalism of “Black Painting V” also stands on its own, as a convincing track in itself. But I can’t help but feel that most of the tracks are unspectacular or, again, rather slight; though, again, whether this is due to the pieces themselves or the influence of the accompanying text, I can’t be sure. I would, however, love to experience this as Tele.S.Therion intended