Four words: turn the amp up. Or: get into correct sync. For this spectral music in ‘Untitled_Tevet’ is equally surrounding and diametrically huge. No surprises then that the subject matter is about a 380kg+ block of ice, an ice cube made of the most extreme resonances known to us niche listeners. Perhaps that’s a contradiction… surely big theme can mean ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’? Four word responses: does it really work? Ice amplitude/resonance…hmm. The answer is yes.
What we have here essentially is a gigantically fat slab of amorphous musique concrete. Similar musically to Rapoon, Simon Scott’s ‘Below Sea Level’ (though not as somniferous) and Trevor Wishart (but not as haunting), this handmade disc rarity is a joy when given a chance to unfurl properly on a good system. Originally I only ‘liked’ it. But I wasn’t listening hard enough – my new amplifier was partially disconnected, too much distortion. Given headphones or correct engineering on behalf of the recipient, this one-track album can unfurl its glacial delights for you. Oh the sweetness of a signal path.
There is initially more noise than sound. 32 minutes in, comes a angelic quietude, from the sound sources used, which are quite like anti-instruments in a way. Just existing for the sake of progressing forever stasis. I found myself addictively transported to the colder regions of the Earth. We are able also to hear how consonance and dissonance are not necessarily icy bedfellows. The idea of stasis – temporality – is put in a mixing bowl, a dust cloud, and we are left to pick up the pieces of the sea and any titanic travellers that come into touch. The mood, while potentially disasterous, thankfully sails past that tundra. She lives to sail another day.
The sad thing is that this music may be cast aside or unsettle everyday people. If you don’t love ambient, honestly, there is little for you here. If you do, however, let Krysalissound label take your breath away with a thoroughly engrossing, head-spinning trip of a download. It’s available from Bandcamp. You may find yourself as I did becoming so enchanted with it, that those extreme ice block resonances wired from the natural do not become as intimidatingly large as one first imagined. Wrap up warm, and set your sights (and ears) for pure black ice.