I guess this project by (bleak) needs no introduction anymore. If not trusted with (yet), or simply when just interested, check out one of the reviews written exclusively for this outfit by the very productive artist behind it (link: see below).
For this specific recording, (bleak) wanted to return to the basics of the project, to the ‘roots’ (got it?) where Field Recordings took the lead. This recording ‘felt essential to stay [] rooted in love for nature and its sounds’. This time, the release got achieved in collaboration with Canadian label The Church Of Noisy Goat (both this label and the artist joined forces before, like the Utterblight recording Weight Of The World or Fuck You’s 01 [which might be reviewed soon too, at least if I could create a huge amount of additional time in my upcoming earthly existence]). The result is a one-piece experience that lasts for exactly twenty minutes. I do not know who came up with the idea of the cover artwork (with an evident link / wink to the ‘natural’ content: the green treetops from a coniferous forest, seen from a drone-visioned bird perspective), yet it does fit to the sonic source.
This lengthy ‘song’ might feel like a monotonous soundwave at first. Actually, in nature it is quite monotone, for the spine behind it floats by like a repetitive sonic structure. But of course it is more than a narrow-minded and one-directional piece of sonority. Roots stands for a symbiotic interplay of different sound-sources, taken from natural field-recorded origins: elements of nature (wind, water), animals, you know. This gets richly joined by provocative crunches and crackles, distantly metallic noises, manipulated sound-textures, and hints of trans-dimensional murmuring (yeah, I just write down in simple words what my brain and eardrums can’t explain while experiencing this elegy). No, seriously; this works like a transcendental soundscore to accompany the listener through a rainy, misty subtropical jungle, while exploring, wondering, as well as surviving. The balance of fantasy and reality (strengthened by the recorded sounds of organic source) works accurately hypnotic and lucid at the very same time. That’s why twenty minutes are not an immense conquest to get through; on the contrary, the scrupulous subtleties throughout this whole piece abide in awareness, interest and consequence.
In the meantime, Roots might have been released three months ago, and both the project as well as the label involved came up with a huge pile of new material, yet I just felt to finish and publish this review, which I started at the end of January yet which had never been completed. So, that’s why… Enjoy!
https://thechurchofnoisygoat.bandcamp.com/album/roots
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-sado-rituals
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-1
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/carrion-0
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/empty-pool-carrion
https://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/utterblight
https://thechurchofnoisygoat.bandcamp.com/album/01
https://thechurchofnoisygoat.bandcamp.com/album/weight-of-the-world