Appearing in a CD edition via the good offices of Zoharum, The Stargazer’s Assistant‘s Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids was originally released on double 10” vinyl in 2013 on Utech Records. The trio here consists of David J Smith, David J Knight and Michael J York, all of whom have been members of Cyclobe and/or UnicaZürn among many other groups (Guapo, Coil, Miasma And The Carousel Of Headless Horses, The Amal Gamal Ensemble) and collaborators with artists such as Danielle Dax and Lydia Lunch.
Over the space of the album’s six tracks, the group construct a remarkable, delightful and mostly instrumental album where Smith’s deft percussive groundwork forms the solid foundation around which the collective gather and hold forth. They are joined by Mika Rättö of Circle on the haunting “Coral Butterfly”, his beatific vocals offering up an astoundingly lovely imprecation to the void as the music floats and cycles below.
Words that sound like they are intoning “Oh, it’s a hard life” manifest as a repeated hamonised refrain on “Shivers & Voids”, a shaker rhythm drifting lazily among loops and drones. “Secret Kingdom Of The Swift” finds them at their most obviously energetic, chugging along on a blizzard of percussion before heading into the heady pastures of an uplifiting electronic plateau, Smith using the late Edward Vesala’s collection of metal instrumentation to dazzling effect. On “Night Soil”, twinkling electronics merge with woodland birdsong and animal calls to introduce the gentle formations of bass guitar and somnolent percussion that herald something far more brittle and disturbed. Interjections of piercing tones and muffled explosions shift dimensions in a dynamic exchange between dark and light, action and held notes that precede the tremulous wash of a gong and strings that reveal themselves with a slow caress and a haunted Mellotron-like chorale.The finale comes in the sweeping orchestrations that introduce “The Dream Kingdom” in suitably hallucinatory fashion, its languid undertow concealing spluttering oscillators and filters that circle somewhat menacingly. But the final destination reveals itself to be ultimately far more majestic, martial drum rolls and chiming bells heralding a departure for points still more sublime. As it reaches its conclusion in a fading note, Mirrors & Tides, Shivers & Voids reiterates The Stargazer’s Assistant’s capacity to astonish and beguile in equal measure.
-Linus Tossio-
