Two artists from Greece and the US, respectively, grace this cdr from the rather
ridiculously named American label Swamp of Pus.
Nokalypse is Themis Pantelopoulous of Athens, who claims to be influenced primarily
by the more 'serious' strains of contemporary music, and it shows in his 37
minute composition here. I hear more than a trace of Xenakis works (particularly
"Persepolis" and "La Legende D'Eer") in these endlessly rising and falling sound
textures. The long slow buildup takes on a sort of respiratory pattern, with
more and more details swelling up from the depths, eventually congealing into
a huge soundmass, metallic creakings and gargantuan oceanic textures, before
winding down into more brittle electronic sounds towards the finish. Nothing
stays still for too long, and repeat listening is rewarded with more revealed
details.
Todd Novasak's name is familiar to me but this is the first time I've heard
his work. Clocking in at a hair over half an hour, his contribution here contrasts
with the Nokalypse piece in that it's built from very obviously synthesised
sound and is more or less devoid of the 'classical' electroacoustic references
that characterised Pantelopoulous' piece. The muffled opening makes me think
of some of those old Mauthausen Orchestra tapes from the early-mid 80's, but
this mood changes as electronic tones cut in at a much higher level.
Various shifts follow at intervals, with the wavering tones of (I'm assuming)
analogue oscillators dominating. Sometimes the bottom drops out, leaving high-pitched
whines hovering in mid-air before low-end distortion rushes in, sometimes slowly
shifting pure tones congeal into a droning mass. It gets relatively noisy in
places but is far from 'noise', always showing restraint. While less immediately
impressive than Nokalypse's piece, Novasak does succeed in creating something
quite immersive here, and rounds out a quite excellent disc.
