various / 14 tracks

14 tracks of Elemental Improvisations

These 14 tracks are scattered like runes between the obelisks of avant-metal, doom ambience, jazz and electronic psychedelia. They're tied together by an automatic, instinctive feel for the black art of improvisation, conducting fascinating abstract dialogue in an esoteric sonic language. Daniel O'Sullivan and Stephen O'Malley's Æthenor, now on their fourth album, describe this aesthetic like few others, playing with a captivating fluency and all-encompassing sonic vocabulary. Another branch of this sound belongs to LAFMS members Smegma, whose collaboration with Jazkamer on 'Carniviorous Bog' connects to an inimitably primitive imagination shared by Finnish free-psyche duo, Alberorovesciato. Heading eyes-shut in a more lo-fi, baroque pop direction we find Hype Williams' 'Selbstportrait'-like invention 'Han Dynasty Pt.3' sharing something in common with the lute improv of Jozef Van Wissem, while Grails and Skullflower nod to the freedoms afforded by original '70s psychedelic shamens such as Gong or King Crimson. Maverick Japanese improviser Keiji Haino, meanwhile, shares the studio with Pan Sonic and we find the most untethered, shapeless ambient abstractions in the sounds of Wicked Messenger and Bastian Wegner. In essence, all these artists seek to connect with something beyond convention through application of mystic inner abilities, and the results are deeply affecting.