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SZCZEPANIK, NICHOLAS - The Chiasmus

Format: CD Label & Cat.Number: Basses Frequences BF16 / Sentient Recognition Archive SRA021 Release Year: 2009 Note: debut album of this new "experimental drone" discovery; ed. of 500 copies Price (incl. 19% VAT): €12.00 More Info "Nicholas' debut CD is much more than an impeccably constructed piece of abstract drone music: The Chiasmus undulates between waves of quiet melancholy and overwhelming beauty, with small slices of pointillistic noise. an album where the emotional response is always the central focus rather then pure aesthetic concerns, the nuances of The Chiasmus are only revealed upon multiple listens; by then, the listener is completely tuned into the world it presents. packaged in a jewel with a 16 pages booklet of art by Avery McArthy." [label info] "... We mostly know him as the owner of Sentient Recognition Archive label, who produce some professionally packed CDRs of the moody, textured drone music around. I think this is the first time I hear his music. Its hardly a surprise that he creates such music himself. Drone music with a big D. Szczepanik seems to be drawing inspiration from all over the place. Through calm and atmospheres, he isn't too shy about breaking away from that and offer a louder end of his excursions. Things buzz and drone and sometimes bite your ear. Think a louder Organum meeting the softest Machinefabriek. The softer moments are the best, I think, but the louder bits (a minority here) provide a great counter point. Maybe a bit long, but very nice." [FdW / Vital Weekly] "A split release between bad ass French microlabel Basses Frequencies, and Szczepanik's own Sentient Recognition Archive label, The Chiasmus is Szczepanik's latest collection of dronology, and the first proper cd we've had (quite possible his first proper cd release entirely). We've long been fans, being the dronelords and ladies we are around these parts, and past Szczepanik joints have demonstrated a mastery of the drone, creating surprisingly lush and lustrous expanses of low end minimalism. On The Chiasmus, Szczepanik continues to move ever deeper, ever darker, five long tracks, each a different variation of drone, drifting from minimal black shift, to near Pop Ambient bliss. Record opener is cavernous, epic, Teutonic and slow shifting, peppered at the beginning with bits of glitch and hiss, the song soon settles into an uneasy sprawl, ominous and dangerously grim, but still somehow warm and expansive and enveloping. The second track shifts gears completely, unfurling a gauzy bit of chordal shimmer, all warm and sun dappled and delicate and gauzy, gentle tranquil melodies played out over minutes instead of seconds, a little Eno for sure, as the song drifts and flutters and hovers dreamily in midair. The final three tracks hover somewhere in between, deep moaning post industrial whirs laid over dense metallic buzz, the two layers slowly seeping into one another like some blackened sonic spill, deep bell like tones ring out, their tones frozen in time and stretched out into softly undulating sheets of sound, slightly reflective and iridescent and kaleidoscopic, glimmering and glistening underneath some alien black sun, and finally, a loooooooong stretch of grinding muted buzz, spreading out in slow motion, it's black shimmer infused with streaks of melody, as if some strange black seas was slowly growing warmer and coming to life before our ears. Fantastic, gorgeous stuff. Essential listening for the drone obsessed..." [Aquarius Records review] www.bassesfrequences.org