Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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Ronnie Sundin – Seven Year Silence (Fang Bomb)

Posted: 12 Aug 2009 06:17 AM PDT

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Two Part album by Swedish non-musician (trained visual artist) Ronnie Sundin rips apart his previous mostly silent, oft hardly apparent sound persona. Consisting of assemblages of 'rediscovered mini-discs from 2001-2007', it could read as treatments of noise in multitudes of guises, modes and strategies of attack. Part one has a long enter and build static and disrupted patterned noise into auditory assault culminating and frequency manipulation and variation. The latter stage of part one could be construed as the reward for the long entrance if not for the 'intelligent noise' manipulation method of Sundin rendering this quotient as a virtual non statement and ending with dental drill accuracy precision and sonic pleasantry.

Part 2 opens more ominously, atmosphere building, then into an intricate melange of tones statics, frequencies and variations of manipulations . It's all 'high end' sound, mincing the upper spectrum to pulp, in a 'freak-out' attack of sonic mayhem. If it were not so controlled and determined in sonic abrasiveness it could be pulled apart with ease, but the deep sonic bleakness and convulsive experimentation can be equated to the idea that black is a combination of all apparent parts color spectrum at once. Suddenly it seems for the post quiet Sundin that everything happens at once and can be described as such (or at least documented), the signal is opened wide, tune in to Seven Years Silence at the risk of dissolving all concepts of sound previously held. Although you may want to hold on to your hat.

Innerversitysound

Wildbirds & Peacedrums – The Snake (Leaf/Inertia)

Posted: 11 Aug 2009 08:07 PM PDT

It’s become de rigeur for bands to announce themselves as duos these days. Leave the bass guitar at home – check. Fill up the space with bluesy guitar licks and plenty of kick drum – check. What might happen, though, if a duo got really stripped down? Just percussion and voice, say? Wildbirds & Peacedrums – a Swedish duo of Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin – give us the answer. Incredible. If done by the right duo of course, and Wildbirds & Peacedrums are the right duo.

With only the two making sounds, there’s plenty of space for both to shine. Wallentin’s voice is incredible. Banshee wail, Celtic goddess, intimate lover, dirt track blues ancient; she covers a large amount of ground across The Snake and is engaging at every point. And Werliin’s percussion is just as impressive. At times, a stripped down Tom Waits junkyard, at others, a funked up John Bonham machine – he attacks recklessly when required and creates haunted atmospherics at other times. Snatches of tuned percussion – xylophone, marimba, steel drum etc – give hints at the harmonic underpinning to Wallentin’s melodies, but always maintain their rhythmic pulse. ‘Island’ starts proceedings almost a cappella, a ghostly gælic melody culminating in “Sing a ding a ding a ding a ding a ling”. It sounds way too trite to work, but this is serious stuff, and the performance gives the words a dark menace, undercutting the words with a sinisterness. ‘Places’ is the most stripped back track, left at a single driving drumkit and a blues holler on broken love pushing the needle into the red. It’s truly spinetingling. ‘Liar Lion’ adds a smattering of gospel organ as Wallentin goes early Siouxsie Sioux tribal wailing, “The way the truth becomes a lie”. It hints at the undercurrent of tension between beauty and brutality, primitivism and virtuosity.

I’ve reviewed a large number of good albums this year. It’s actually been a pretty impressive year for releases. But The Snake is heading up near the top of the pile. It’s idiosyncratic without ever abandoning the function of entertainment. It moves through a myriad of moods without ever losing focus. It’s inspired me greatly and continues to unravel depths the more I listen.

Adrian Elmer

at 5:37 PM