Trou — Avari

Avari is a C90 album from the French harsh to wall noise project Trou. It takes in four Roman numeral titled ‘walls’, which all have a decidedly clattering, raw, at points atmospheric quality.

The release appeared on the project's own Ciel Bleu Et Petits Oiseaux label. With the chrome C90 coming presented in a single-sided sleeve, which features a picture of a snow-bound grass path in front of a thick evergreen woodland. 

First, we have “I” which brings together a rattling low-end rush, with a selection of thinner/ barren juddering bounds to wind buffeting mids. The track very much brings to mind trying to walk in an icy winter lashing storm, along the line of a forest of trees, which madly sway as you pass. There is some slight shift in the textures, but it largely remains in a similar place throughout the track's runtime until we shift into a sudden, more open bay, before dipping back to a faint rush around the half-hour mark- I’m guessing this is were we shift to “II” as from this point the whole thing start to steady reduced in layers/ volume- with in it last few minutes I hear this almost brood/ moody synth tone- not sure if this is real or not.

Over to side B, and we have “III” here, we find a blend of rolling lows, and cluttering mids, to me, this initially sounds like the layered/ amassed sound of a bowling alley.  Blend the tones of rapidly rolling bowls with the constant smashing of pins.  At the twenty-two minute mark, we get a more pronounced cluttering swirl – before shifting into a mix of cluttering rush, with these distant baying undertones, and I’m guessing we’re now in “IV”. Once again, the track seems to slow fade back its layers, and in the last few minutes, I’m making out moody sweeps, these dark off-tone cluttering textures, and even almost harmonic horn-like bass atmospherics.

Avari is from 2023- though as of writing the label still has copies- it’s well worth picking up, if you enjoy longer form walling, with some rewarding shifts