I knew French artist Furniker (real name: Franz Schultz, very French indeed) from some material I heard via Murmure Intemporel, an experimental label from France’s soil. Recently I also received a copy of a new recording by this project of Herr Schulz, this time released via Death Carnival Records, one of the labels by the talented and devoted artist A.Arthur. The material is available the digital way via the label’s Bandcamp page, as well as on CD-r in an extremely limited version in a carton envelop – and there aren’t but a very few copies left, so hurry up!
The six tracks were recorded in 2016 and clock just over twenty-eight minutes. It stands for a strange, experimental collection of, well, let’s call it ‘tracks’ rather than ‘songs’. Opener BDSM (no, not DSBM, dearest reader) opens with a distant electronic pulse and something that sounds like repetitive hand clapping, added, step by step, by other noises. In the beginning, I was patiently waiting for something to come, and my patience was not futile. For one reason or another, one grows into the minimal and so(m)ber Musique Concrète / Drone stuff, which even starts to thrill towards the end. The somewhat hypnotic sphere surely defines that modest enthusiasm. Coule Le Metal is much more powerful and overwhelming. It’s a symbiosis of industrial sounds and samples, often injected by sudden noises and spiced by hidden details. After two minutes, the mesmerizing Nihilistic Electro-Noise-Concrète (ever heard about this description; well, here you have it) gets enriched by dry drums and psycho-industrial ambience, which makes this composition quite non-conformist yet enthralling. Nuit Souterraine also is based on different percussions, added by industrialised soundscapes, besides several unusual samples (like something like telephone-beeps). The shortest piece, Incantation, is the most suffocating out of six, based on an approach much more industrialised than any other track. The fullness of the mechanics and the obscurity resulted by those ominous sound collages make this composition, together with the next one (see further), to be my personal favourites (though this meaning adds no value to the review whatsoever – but hey, it’s my review and I can write whatever I want). This could have been something on late C.M.I., I think. Révolution Industrielle goes even further with both the ritual as well as the industrial aspects from the former track. It’s like a noisy dronescape, like speechless war propaganda, like malformed post-nuclear joy, with quite a ritual and tribal elegance in its execution. Studio, to end with, is much more like the opening track, mixing different sounds and samples in general. But it also implements that touch of electricity, quite uncomfortable, even detestable.
I don’t know whether it’s my copy, or a hidden surprise, but on my copy, I got two more (bonus?) tracks, completely going on in a comparable vein. Both are as frenzy as any other; the second one even going into electronic extremes, and injecting different insane vocal samples. Why not! Actually, it’s a fine surprise to continue this weirdness for a while…
With exception of the rare use of a detuned piano, Furniker does not use ‘real’ instruments, yet rather the project creates everything by mingling sounds and samples, digital sources and noises whatsoever. This mixture of Drone, Dark Ambient, Musique Concrète and Industrial is not exactly meant to be played when having a dinner at New Year’s Eve (yet then again: why not?), and I am sure this material needs endurance and pertinacity, but it’s worth it. Take some listens, and maybe you will grow into the world of Furniker. I persevered, but now I am sort like a ‘fan’ – imagine that…