Zoharum
The second instalment in Zoharum’s Circuit Intégré series brings together a trio of electronic artists from the Polish musical underground, each providing three pieces in turn for the compilation.
Docetism, AKA
Maciej Banasik, who also records as
Atum,
Contemptus Mundi and
Topografia, offers up “Virgin Forest” parts I-III, very much in the circling drone mode of electronica. Built on a foundation of heartbeat pulsations interspersed with slowly-evolving, almost choral patches, Banasik makes perhaps the closest to traditional (how strange that is to write) ambient music on this collection. It’s
slightly woozy, effortlessly weightless, while also letting the glitch inflections hiss and crackle slightly at the borders of perception. Though never neglecting the groove imperative, and at time reminiscent of the likes of, say,
Biosphere, the three Docetism pieces provide an excellent set of music for intelligible, intelligent relaxation.
Ghosts Of Breslau have been active since the turn of the century, and “Travel Loops” 1-3 display an icy familiarity with drone dynamics,
pushing long-form structures forward on immense rafts of low-end solidity which have a palpable effect on room furnishings at anything approaching the proper volume. On a decent sound system in a concert hall, these three pieces must be highly impressive; and the dictum that ambient music should be listened to at maximum volume (usually ascribed to
Brian Eno, and why not) certainly works wonders here, whatever the reproducing equipment involved. Beatless, scratchy, vibrant and voluminous, these “Travel Loops” achieve their apparent purpose of initiating a sonic peregrination with deceptive ease.
Opting to divide their single untitled track into three sections on the disc,
Ixora — the combined forces of
Gaap Kvlt (who also appeared on
Circuit Intégré 1 in their own right) and the ever-active
Micromelancolié — are also the authors of the densest and most varied contribution. Riding in on the echoed sound of a metronome, electronic or acoustic, their journey takes in more diversions
en route than the other two artists. Shards of
synthetic noise, layered, tocking plucks, shifting squitters and metallic scrapes, reverberent throbs and spasming waveforms weave a dreamlike path through the half-waking state where the subconscious lifts up to intersect with quotidian reality.
While Ixora may be the most engaging of the trio of artists on Circuit Intégré 2, theirs is also the most demanding listen on offer here. Night-time and downtime are perhaps best served by Docetism and Ghosts Of Breslau, but the deepest listening comes last.
-Linus Tossio-
The second instalment in Zoharum’s Circuit Intégré series brings together a trio of electronic artists from the Polish musical underground, each providing three pieces in turn for the compilation.
