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Ural Umbo
On their debut collaboration, percussionist Steven Hess (Haptic) and Reto Mader (Sum of R) create brilliant film score-ish compositions that, on the surface, are as dark and bleak as any that can be imagined, but the structure and instrumentation used give far more depth and variation to what otherwise could be mundane and trite. The result is a diverse set of pieces that prove there are a wide gradient of shades of gray.
While there is definitely a horror movie feel to the pieces on this disc, most of them would work just as well within any dark, drama framework given their lush, somewhat obscure construction and tense atmospheres. The opening “The Lights Would Stop Flickering” is the perfect introduction, with its slow, bowed cymbal backing and broken church organ crawl, together mimicking a funeral march even when delicate chimes arrive.
“Voices From The Room Below” follows a similar path, mixing indecipherable sound squeals into an abstract dark cloud of murkiness, with gentle wind chimes and distant, indecipherable voices appearing to add to the feeling of disorientation. Similarly, “Pendulum Impact Test” allow somber melodies to resonate through empty halls, with pieces of what may be voices arising occasionally before everything is engulfed by a beautiful noisy squall of warbling sound.
Some of the tracks actually allow the instrumentation to shine through rather than keeping it within a dark mire: “Theme of the Paranormal Feedback” mixes a queasy organ and a raw viola scrape drone (think John Cale on “Black Angel’s Death Song”) representing both gentle and harsh ends of sound, all of which is met with clattering metal percussion before everything soars into a dramatic, almost symphonic ecstasy of sound as the track winds to a close. “Don’t Eat Carrots, My Little Ghost Horse” focuses on largely untouched guitar playing, mixed with amplifier hum and ghostly ambient textures that swirl around below.
Tracks like “Forlata Jag” embrace the horror movie ambience, with its minor key organ progressions and noisy swells, but the track is pushed along by traditional drumming (I assume by Hess) that feels a bit less abstract than the aforementioned tracks, but still nothing easily categorized. Between the drums and the somber, depressing sound, there is perhaps a bit of Goblin influence, though not directly. The long “Stumbling Upon Blood and Mercury” opens with static guitar noise and feedback, but is soon bolstered by a tortured guitar squeal and somber, marching drums that plod along painfully. The closing “Mathieu 2004-2009” is structurally similar, opening with a sense of menace via restrained reverberated drone and deep resonating tones that are later met with drumming, all of which reaches dramatic zeniths before ending in subtle shimmers of sound.
While most definitely “dark” in its overall approach, that is too simplistic of a label in my eyes. The complex layering of instrumentation and mostly somber sounds do create a mood, but when tracks like “Theme of the Paranormal Feedback” and “Mathieu 2004-2009” launch into dramatic sweeping pastiches, the sound is far less bleak and much more nuanced in approach. It is an engrossing debut from these two established artists.
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