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Legendary horror author (and local homeboy) H.P. Lovecraft has influenced generations of authors since the first half of the 20th century. Unfortunately for Lovecraft, his fame and influence wouldn't be recognized until after his death in 1937. Over the course of his all too short career, Lovecraft shaped an bizarre and compelling universe of unspeakable, unfathomable horrors. Despite his untimely demise, his work went on to inspire music, movies, books, and even role playing games. Starting with Andrew Leman's readings of "The Hound" and "The Music of Erich Zann," Cadabra has put forth the first in a series of H.P. Lovecraft readings on LP.
Now this is a fascinating thing; a two disk set presented in an oversized gatefold wallet with a lavish full colour fold out. On one side a large topographical map of the area around Cologne marked with strange labels such as "Inner Space", "Refugee trails", and "Frontex Operation Corridor". On the other side a multitude of diagrams, photographs, graphical models and maps, some with accompanying text in English or German. The organisation responsible Gruenrekorder specialises in what they call "soundworks and phonography" but this doesn't clarify much for us. The English introductory text begins with a quote from W.J.T. Mitchell's Landscape and Power which starts "Landscape is a natural scene mediated by culture". The music contained on these two disks is a result of a seminar series held at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and in their own words focuses "on sound related aspects and auditive experiential modalities for tracing the current conditions for a political and social exploration of fear from a spatial (e.g. geographical, territorial as well as topological and auditive) viewpoint, in order to specifically examine the individual, subjective interests of the participants".
Here we have a C90 release from bleak & brutal Manchester based wall noise project Cherry Blossom At Night. The tape appeared back in September 2015 on UK wall noise label Tera-AntiQu, and features just two (nearly) side long tracks of stark, grim, oppressive wall- craft.
A Guide for Reason is a musique concret / deep listening avant garde project from experimental guitarist Mike Fazio, a veteran who has released countless albums in the previous 20 years under aliases such as orchestramaxfieldparrish and Aera as well his own name Mike Fazio, most with very limited distribution. The sound of his work is most often a liquid, freeform textural ambience created with a combination of guitar and digital FX, containing soothing consonance and beautiful tones as well as eruptions of chaotic noise and a haunted feeling.
A while back, I reviewed an earlier album by this ensemble, and it was an enjoyable, interesting listen. This release sees the group lose a member (Nicole Mitchell on flute), gain a member (Michael Moore on clarinet), and move from the studio to the live arena. The five tracks were recorded live at the 2014 Vancouver International Jazz Festival.
Handmade Birds presents Slime of the Chasm, a short and sweet cassette-only release by JS Aurelius. JS Aurelius, wasn’t a name I was all too familiar with. However, if you need a point of reference, he co-founded Ascetic House imprint, and is involved with Destruction Unit and Marshstepper. Released in 2014, this cassette offers a single track with the same program playing on both sides. At first it kind of confused me, since I don’t stumble across too many tapes these days that has a track that repeats itself on Side B (seemingly a relic of the good ole major label cassingle days). However, low and behold, Slime is a single 20 minute piece that could be played ad infinitum on your automatic cassette deck.
Here’s a four way split tape box set from Spokane, Washington based Lost Light Records. The set offers up four slices of dense, brutal, yet often darkly moody walled noise- with each track coming in at, or around the twenty minute mark.
Greek death merchants, Abyssus, start 2016 with a compilation release on Transcending Obscurity. With 19 tracks from four prior releases, Once Entombed is a great vehicle for fans to check out Abyssus' earlier work. An energetic tribute to the death metal of old, Abyssus will have you banging your head and raising your fists.
Wise Ol’man is the new seven track EP from long running post punk institution The Fall. The release offers up a selection of new songs, and remixed/ instrumental takes of tracks from their last full length album 2015’s Sub-Lingual Tablet. And on the whole the EP focuses in on the bands more noisy/ free-form side, to decidedly mixed results.
Anonymous Masturbaudioum are one of the more interesting, creative, and overtly perverse projects to appear from with-in the euro wall-noise/ harsh noise scene in the last year or so. Since early 2015 the project has put out around ten releases- which take in cassettes, CDRs, splits & digital releases. Audiorgasm is one of the projects more recent releases- it’s a CDR and it appeared in October 2015 on French noise/ sleazy label Porn Noise Records.
Power Structure offer’s up two twenty five-to-thirty minute slices searing & intense HNW from this Denton Texas based project. This release comes in the form of a CDR, and appeared on Listen Loudly (the artists own label) in 2015.
The Thing is a Norwegian jazz trio featuring saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, string bassist Ingebrigt Haker-Flaten and Paul Nilssen-Love on drums. Highly prolific and formed in 2000, the group has countless releases by now. Their new album, "Shake" has been released in several formats with slightly different track listings, but in any case, contains about 60 minutes of new music.
Here’s another cd from the Line label, predictably packaged in their usual, minimalist beauty. ‘Forms of Forgetting’ has a front cover depicting flaking, painted wood; whilst the back cover explains the themes of the release as memory and forgetting. The album contains one long track, named as per the album the itself, and running to nearly fifty-six minutes.
Chaosynod imprint presents the debut album by HNW new-comer Walls of Benin. Available as a limited edition CD-R, the self-titled full-length (and project moniker) takes it’s inspiration from the world’s largest man-made structure: the Walls of Benin. At one time a 16,000 km chain of fortifications used a defense for the defunct Kingdom of Benin; its ruins are now found in current day Benin City, Nigeria. Ripe subject matter for wall-riding.
IV is the first physical release from Vagrant- the new ‘static noise meets techno’ project from respected & high prolific French noise maker Julien Skrobek. The release comes in the form of a CDR, and offers up two eighteen minute tracks.
Here we have the 2015 double disc reissue of the 2nd album from British avant-pop meets wonky (off) world music two piece Renaldo and the Loaf. The album originally appeared back in 1983, and it saw the band developing more of a sonically sophisticated & layered sound, which featured a wider sonic pallet, less awkward edger’s & more tuneful element's- yet didn’t lose the projects quirky sonic charm & distinctive feel.
Allseits' (Nina Kernicke) follow-up to 2009's acclaimed Hel, Chimäre, has the artist building a glorious landscape of stacked drones and deep pulses which work to draw the listener into a lush, sonic world. Having worked in the past with the likes of Troum and Aun, it's no surprise that Allseits offers up such luxurious textures. Cyclic Law's release of Chimäre is limited, so don't hesitate on picking it up.
Band Ane is the pseudonym of Ane Ostergaard, a project which began in 2006 with her debut "Anish Music", and continues now with its 3rd LP, titled "Anish Music Caravan" in confusing similarity to her debut.
Here’s a pro-cd, by Nickolas Mohanna, on Run/Off - both new names to me. The sombre, if colourful, artwork depicts a tangled thicket of scaffolding on the front cover; whilst, inside, some text tells us that the album collects work recorded for a ‘touring sound exhibition’. This work amounts to two long tracks, both around the seventeen minute mark.
From April 2015 here we have a double C80 cassette box set that brings together a selection of out-of-print releases from this highly prolific Serbian walled noise project. The set compiles together tracks from nine 3inch CDR releases, which appeared between the years 2010 & 2012 on various underground noise labels.
Here Australians Morte Cammina returns with a recent CDR release. It offers up two twenty to thirty minute examples of taut yet often texturally rewarding wall-craft with a murderous & blood soaked theme.
Flesh Control is a forty minute slice of searing & raging walled noise from this French HNW/ Harsh noise project. The release comes in the form of a CDR, which appears on the French sleaze, violence & noise label Porn Noise Records.
Berlin electronic duo Driftmachine are back with Eis Heauton, their follow up to 2014's debut, Nocturnes. Working with modular synthesis and self-generating patches, the duo present a stark, minimal, electronic daydream. Letting the synth spill its inner thoughts and ideas, the listener is given insight into what makes the machine tick. Sparse, but generally engaging, Eis Heauton has the listener play therapist hearing the robot's confession.
Bertrand Russell once quipped that he couldn't tell the difference between a mysticism that covers over a profound truth and one that was merely nonsense. There is however another possible form of mysticism the Russell didn't consider; that of the type which rather than being plain nonsense or covering over a profound truth merely adds interest to a banal one. This is perhaps worth bearing in mind when approaching the output of Ulver who for the past twenty or so years have been engaged in a knowing and protracted courtship with the mystical and the banal played out across numerous records and multiple styles of music.