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Vertonen, "Orchid Collider"
Vertonen is the work of Blake Edwards, owner and proprietor ofChicago's C.I.P. label, which has released work by variousexperimental, primarily electronic projects including Z'ev, The HaflerTrio, Howard Steltzer/Jason Talbot and Nautical Almanac.
As Vertonen,Edwards produces lengthy pieces in which the subtle harmonics andsonorities of slowly shifting drones are of utmost primacy. Orchid Collidercontains six tracks in which drones overlap and communicate, discovertheir innate harmonious natures and then dissolve as throbbing machinerhythms and deafening walls of noise gradually encroach. At times,individual tracks sound like a series of complementary solos by variousassemblages of electronic devices, each given their spotlight tocommunicate their own unique voice. At other times, the sound evokesthe hypnotic interstices of the non-local quantum experience: theendless clinical white hallways of Ketamine space. It's a lonely,plasticated atmosphere haunted by the abandonment of identity and thedim echoes of something artificially resembling nature, such as theuncannily unreal crickets of "Our Sterile Years, Resumed," a trackwhich runs off its own spool and fades away in a clamor of junk metalnoises. There doesn't seem to be a concept linking the pieces on Orchid Collider,instead each track seems to exist on its own terms, each a separate andhermetic narrative formed out of various strands of hypnotic machinedrone. Standout tracks include the all-too-brief "ForgivenessPrecipice," which locates some of the most intensely renderedmind-cleansing frequencies I've enjoyed this side of a headphonehearing test. "Failure (Graywater Terminal)" begins with some very AlanSplet-ish atmospheres, lonely haunted drones bubbling up from thebottom of the rusty pipeworks and abandoned smokestacks of some futureindustrial wasteland. Somewhere in the distance a lonely, miserablecreature wails in utter darkness and solitude, providing a chillingmoment of Lustmord-ian horror that stayed with me long after the trackhad veered into more benign territory. According to the liner notes, Orchid Colliderwas made with the support of a Community Arts Assistance Program grantby the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, which I can'timagine is a situation in which most purveyors of abstract electronicdrone music find themselves. It's a credit to whoever in Chicago ishanding out the arts grants, however, as the album is an exemplarywork, a satisfying drone album that goes beyond the usual elegiachypnosis to locate some truly spine-tingling moments of abstract,haunting loveliness.
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