Current listening: Merzbow / Christoph Heemann - Sleeper Awakes On The Edge Of Abyss, Consumer Electronics / Merzbow - Horn Of The Goat (Ill be honest, Im not a Merzbow fan at all. Ive heard many of his solo albums - the number would be in double figures - having sought them out back in the late 90s after being intrigued by the descriptions of their violence and intensity of sound in places such as the Wire magazine. However, while they were noisy and loud for sure, I found them all dull more than anything else. These two collaborative albums, though, are two of the best albums of any kind that I have heard. Despite his name getting top billing in the case of the Heemann album, these two albums are similar only in that they sound to me to be entirely the work of Heemann and CE (who in this case seem to feature pretty much the whole line-up of Skullflower and Ramleh at the time) respectively, with Merzbows contributions being used as just one sonic element among many (with in many cases this being the least essential or prominent element and in places seemly absent altogether from the music). Sleeper Awakes On The Edge Of Abyss is a masterpiece of ambient music, with Heemann blurring the sound sources and adding field recordings in a manner beautifully typical of his wonderful Mirror project, and even exploring Kosmiche - and decidedly un-Merzbow like - territory in places, such as this gorgeous track Eagle. Horn Of The Goat is the more noisy of the two, but its not at all the standard howling feedback-like harshness which one might expect. Rather, it sounds like free-form improvisation, notably very well recorded and diverse in a way not at all typical of noise music. A definite highlight is Korean Comfort which is playful and even pretty in a strange way, and doesnt seem to have any material from Merzbow involved whatsoever).
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:19:29 +0000