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Lionel Marchetti & Seijiro Murayama, "Hatali Atsalei (l'echange des yeux)"
Titled after a Greek ritual that forms a conceptual background for the disc, this duo leads an ethnographic journey that is every bit as disturbing and frightening as expected, given that the title translates to "exchange of eyes." Marchetti's compulsive attention to detail couples with Murayama's creepy vocalisms to make for a compelling, dramatic work.
Across five tracks, they slowly introduce this hazy world of ritual, where nothing is overtly clear but instead provides only the rudimentary framework to allow the images to be brought up by imagination, and what vivid, disturbing images they become. Most elements of nature are even used in this ritual, with water splashes, crackling fire, and the sounds of stones crashing into each other. Murayama supplements Marchetti's regulated layers of sound with heavy percussion, sometimes sounding like oil drums being instituted in the classic industrial style, other times as dramatic and classical as traditional Noh theater.
I'm hesitant to refer to any of this as "found sounds" or "field recordings," because both imply a sense of chaos and randomness, when the use of them here is so structured and focused. These ambient sounds are treated in this case as another instrument, along with, what I can only assume, is more traditional electronic instrumentation being used to treat the sounds, as well as instruments in their own right, like piercing high end sine waves and swelling, low end bass pulses. The treatment of the natural sounds is used to quite a frightening effect on the second track, however. The sound of what could only be a dog playing with a microphone, sniffing it, snorting, yelping, growling, all things expected of a dog forms a major part of the track. Then, a bit of chaos and audio violence and, through treated effects, the barks become more pained and tortured. While it is obviously from studio processing, it is a disturbing and visceral effect.
Special attention should also be made to Murayama's vocalisms throughout the disc. Rarely processed or treated, he gives some of the most pained, agonizing rasps and growls ever recorded to disk. The only parallel I can draw is akin to Malefic's notorious casket vocals on Sunn O)))'s Black One, but more alien and isolated. Without the need of studio effects, he produces some horribly unnatural sounds, resembling a person trying to communicate as a heavy weight is slowly crushing them to death.
This realm of musique concrete is often painted as a dry, academic field that is more about building an artists vita rather than entertaining, but this is not the approach these two artists take. Although no less complex than such pursuits, it is both highly conceptual and infinitely fascinating: a harrowing, frightening, and compelling audio drama that reveals different facets of this ritual with each listen.
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