Shore-to-shore etheric dub techno bliss by Italian pioneer Gigi Masin and Detroit’s Rod Modell of DeepChord, beautifully consolidating their respective aesthetics on two durational trips.
For many listeners of a sanguine disposition, ‘Red Hair Girl At Lighthouse Beach’ is a marriage made in ambient heaven. The two pieces find them at a certain position in their career arcs where both are particularly porous to collaborative energies, and are now understandably brought together by Silentes’ 13 series. With Gigi beaming from the shores of the Venetian lagoon, and Modell transmitting from the lakes of Michigan, they arrive at a sympathetic union of floating choral castles in the sky buoyed by systolic subbass thrum and bathed in moonlight…
Radio Fore is a psychoacoustic journey into a deep swirling pool of 40Hz tones and binaural beats. The two extended length atmospheric soundscapes explore the mysterious sonic phenomenon that has been documented at hundreds of UFO sightings. Track one takes you for an overnight stay in North, North-West Puerto Rico, at the Arecibo Observatory, track two takes you to the sandy shores of Gulf-Breeze, Florida in the middle of the night. Two places of highly active UFO activity.
Sublime sonics from Detroit dub techno lord Rod Modell and Taka Noda aka Mystica tribe operating in a somewhat melancholy ambient mode. This is the forlorn sound of wandering rainy city streets at night, lights reflecting in puddles and shiny surfaces. There's an ever-present radiant luminescence punctured by environmental sounds, field recordings and ghostly brittle rhythms that emerge and retreat. If you dig Modell's Shorelights and Waveform Transmissions projects, then make some time for "Glow World". Pure bliss.
"Ghost Lights" draws out a wide, cinematic sound - with long arching contours, rippling textures and cavernous sound design.
Woven with layer upon layer of hidden fragments and supernal transmissions, each chapter takes the listener successively deeper into the twilight zone. Harking to dramatic off-world topographies and interstellar spaces, the work glistens with opulent sound treatment and monumental grandeur. Dense pulsations move with oceanic force, marked by washes of celestial light and subterranean drones. Exercising another side to Rod Modell's typically atmospheric productions, this album comes with an ambitious framework and a more assertive sound. Featuring some of Modell’s most epic storytelling to date, "Ghost Lights" delivers a powerful immersive experience.
These 2 long pieces are the sonic equivalent of floating in a body of water on another planet, with gentle washes of water sounds, waves, and deep, harmonic synth chords that breathe and expand. Organic sounds like twigs/sticks bring to mind Alio Die's sacred, earthy tone poems, plus we hear mysterious voices in the background that disorient. This album is a total sound immersion experience, and should be listened to on headphones for the full, almost "3-D" effect as the sound swirls and washes over you from all directions. Sonic Continuum is a serene, cyber-organic journey, both earthy and alien at the same time.
Witch ‘n’ Monk are a theatrical Anglo-Colombian duet featuring two very different musicians. Mauricio Velasierra plays a variety of flutes, while Heidi Heidelberg is a classically trained soprano singer who plays spiky prog-punk riffs on guitar while using looper pedals. They’ve released two mini-albums as Bitch ‘n’ Monk, but their new moniker rather suits the slightly shamanic, unearthly quality of their music. This self-titled LP, recorded in rural Wales and in a former Stasi bunker in Berlin, is their first for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, and you can see what attracted a sonic anarchist such as Zorn to their music.