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Organum/Z'EV, "Temporal"
Following their two other collaborations, Tinnitus Vu and Tocsin -6 Thru +2, here Z'EV initially began reworking tracks from the Organum back catalog, and then collaboratively with David Jackman, who then took it upon himself to finish. What remains is characteristic of both artists' work, and is more reminiscent of Jackman's early work as opposed to his recent triptych of Sanctus/Amen/Omega.
It is more "traditional" by both artists standards because the three long tracks that comprise the album are a multitude of magnetic scrapes and crashes filtered through tons of reverb and other studio effects that, while giving some hint of the source sounds, remain transformed into a different beast entirely.
The opening "Glory Sorrow" is perhaps the most explicit example of this. There is the sound of metal clattering far off in the distance and church bells (a nod to Jackman’s more recent work), all heavily reverberated into the purist sense of drone. Percussive elements that resemble engine rattles and knocks shift in and out of focus as the other atmospheric elements continue to flow on like a tumultuous river.
"Eagle" follows a similar blueprint, opening with processed violent metal scrapes and snippets of choral elements that are eventually met with harsh shrieking metal noises and organ tones that could have been from Amen, but more heavily treated and reverberated. It opens in a much more active and dynamic way, but by the end of the track it has been stripped down to allow a vast, cavernous sound that is distinctly cold and metallic.
The ending "Thunder" begins in a similar fashion, a wide-open spacious mix of erratic distant noise, which could be field recordings of an airport, before being met with sweeping waves of noise and high pitched feedback that brings an end to the spaciousness. Eventually sounds that resemble unintelligible alien voices appear briefly, giving an entirely different feel to the track before being supplanted by far away crashes and sheets of electronic noise. The battle between open space and tumbling noise finally finishes with an ending of careful, peaceful silence.
Compared to the recent Organum "holy" trilogy, this is by for more chaotic, raw, and violent. Z'EV's contributions allow the drone elements from those releases to remain, but in the context of a clattering wall of chaos that, while not the careful study of sonic miniatures that the other releases are, are no less fascinating.
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