BLACK TO COMM / AOSUKE - same

Format: LP

Label & Cat.Number: Dekorder 021

Release Year: 2007

Note: collab. of these two Hamburg-based bands, lim. 500

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €12.50

More Info

"....THE TWO BRAND NEW TRACKS BY BLACK TO COMM ARE CONTINUING THE MASSIVE ORGAN/VOICE DRONE ALCHEMY OF THE LAST DOUBLE-LP WHILE REFINING AND PERSONALIZING HIS SOUND, REACHING NEW HEIGHTS OF BLAZING SONIC MYSTICISM. AOSUKE HAVE DECIDED TO HOME-RECORD THEIR NEW MATERIAL, CONTINUING THEIR LOOP-ORIENTED, MONOTONE YET HIGHLY MELODIC AMBIENT JOURNEYS. WORKING WITH REPETITION AND SMALL ABSTRACTIONS, ALL INSTRUMENTAL "LOOPS" ARE PLAYED BY HAND AND RECORDED LIVE WITHOUT OVERDUBS (ONE OF THE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF THE GUITAR/ELECTRONICS DUO), CREATING SURPRISINGLY CONCRETE DORMANT AND SOMNAMBULISTIC SOUNDSCAPES WHILE FORTUNATELY COMPLETELY LACKING THE WASHY AND DROWSY EFFECTS OF MOST AMBIENT MUSIC.
BLACK TO COMM IS THE ONE-MAN PROJECT OF MARC RICHTER WHO IS THE BRAIN BEHIND THE DEKORDER LABEL AS WELL. SO FAR HE HAS RELEASED TWO ALBUMS ON HIS OWN LABEL ("RÜCKWÄRTS BACKWARDS" AND "WIR KÖNNEN LEIDER NICHT ETWAS MEHR ZU TUN..."). AOSUKE IS THE DUO OF TOBERT KNOPP AND ULF SCHÜTTE, THE LATTER BEING A LABEL HEAD AS WELL (TAPE TEKTONIKS). LAST YEAR THEY HAVE RELEASED THEIR DEBUT "MONOTONE SPIRITS" ALBUM CO-RELEASED BY HAMBURG'S AUDIOLITH LABEL AND SOUTH GERMANY'S MEUDIADEMORTE LABEL." [label info]

"...A nearly sidelong track that begins with a wavering Goblin-y synth, that buzzes warmly and endlessly, an epic stretch of near static drone, drenched in overtones and subtly flickering variations in texture, and surrounded on all sides by distant barely audible scifi melodies and field recordings. Eventually this synthdrone is joined by another tone, this one more grinding and distorted, that slowly builds and builds along side the first, the intensity growing and growing as well as the volume, and the various surrounding sonic events seem much more frenzied, until everything levels off in some sort of Niblock style drone, the various layers beating against one another, notes and tones shifting subtly, the sound seemingly alive, flecked with shards of melody and bits of buzz and swirling effects. It's a glorious sound that enraptures and entrances, eventually, fading out and releasing the listener from their glorious trance. The side finishes off with a brief coda of humid late night soundscaping, the sound of the moors, or the plains, some mysterious dark emptiness, droning and ominous, with creepy reverbed vocals and all sorts of night sounds tangled up in the track's undulating shimmer. The flip side features a group called Aosuke, who we weren't all that familiar with, but whose sounds are as dark and gorgeous and Black To Comm's. But where BtC focus on sound and drone, Aosuke focus on melody as much as texture, with guitar being the focal point, a blissy soft focus guitar ambience, crystalline notes drifting through clouds of space-y effects and strange processed and blurred vocals, it sounds almost like how you might imagine a Durutti Column record on Morr Music might sound. Organic melodies, natural sounds, all tangled up in strange electronic soundscapes, very meditative, a little krautrocky at times, and so so pretty." [Aquarius]

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