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Calcination
Although not part of any of the various art related series on the label, this release from the duo of Antoine Chessex and Ktho Zoid mine similar territory as either the Arc or URSK series do: dark, bleak, meditative drones; and in this case sourced from electronics, guitar, and tenor sax. It does, however, lean more into the realms of noise than some of the other releases, and it is all the stronger for it.
The opening track "Shadows" begins the album with a roar, a harsh blast of guitar noise and overdriven low end scrape, along with a bit of punishing white noise above everything just for good measure. Through the fog of noise the occasional overt guitar tone rises to the surface, and what could be a tortured horn blast somewhere in the muck and mire. Not until around half way through the track does a layer resembling a chugging guitar riff come to the forefront, giving the bleakness a rhythmic underpinning while the noise continues to swirl up around it.
The shorter middle track, "Chystka" begins with a somewhat more conventional sound, a bit of lo-fi raw guitar noodling that sounds like a 1980s metalhead screwing around in his bedroom before everything rapidly descends into distortion hell. Everything becomes consumed by overdriven analog low end crunch, with violent noise elements cutting and out. One thing that separates this track from so many others though is a lot of subtle, sometimes imperceptible sounds scattered throughout. While the focus is clearly the fuzzed out stuff, the slightest change in volume, EQ, or possibly even speaker placement can reveal something different that was seemingly not there just a moment ago.
The longer closing "Let 100 Flowers Bloom" has a similar approach, but rather than opening with the harder stuff, it is more of a slow transition. It leads off with more open space, though an ominous hum stays looming throughout. What sounds like fragments of chimes and little twittering notes scurry about. The hum becomes entwined with a harmonium drone and stays with this atmospheric vibe for about ten minutes. Then, the noise blasts back up to the surface and devours everything, bringing the track closer and closer to what is traditionally labeled noise, even with the somewhat-less treated sax roaring up painfully.
The best part of this album is that there is a lot of subtleties scattered about that pull it away from simple noise drone and into a more nuanced work that builds in complexity the more I listened to it. Rather than just being cranked up to annoy neighbors (like many similar projects can be), there is a lot more to appreciate here rather than just the physical elements.
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