Thresholds of sound and creativity have been unearthed by the Baltimore, Maryland label sPLeeNCoFFiN. 7 & 7 : VOL. 1 brings together four artist working in the sonic noise nexus, a place where transcriptions of the consciousness are perfectly conveyed. The creative mind imprinting momentary passages, thoughts transformed to sounds, here for an instant then retreating away into the cosmic nebula. The unity these artist share is most perplexing, similarities and differences so interwoven together, all describing the same place, just in their own version. Fortunately sPLeeNCoFFiN has recognized this commonality and acted upon it. The label has gone equal distance in preparing and sharing these far sonic reaches with a format equally as delicate to achieve.
This release is housed within vintage seven inch reel to reel cases. Tape reels gone and replaced by two seven inch vinyl records, each side devoted to one of the four selected artist. The cases have been beautifully recovered front and back, with the back side holding format to the original reel to reel box. Inside the front cover is more artwork and beautiful twelve page, seven by seven inch book, with gate folds for each artist. Each vinyl record is also housed in a clear plastic sleeve with screen printed artist and song titles. Before moving on to the sounds, high praise to the artist(s) and designer(s) who put this together. And also advanced gratitude since this is the first of three volumes in this series from the sPLeeNCoFFiN headquarters.
FEMME takes side A and pretty much blows up both sounds and any ideas of traditional vinyl listening. Ten passages titled “Baccara 10”, are interlaced or somehow woven together. Not sure how the stylus is coerced to follow the different groove paths, but it is pretty cool and mind blowing. The sounds are from members of
Opéra Mort and
France Sauvage. Both France based projects exploring the far reaches where melody and chaos blur together. Tons of experience going into just one side of a seven inch.
Sunk Heaven follows suit on side B of the first seven inch. A high energy sonic sphere projecting the inner strengths of Austin Sley Julian. “Enemy Motion”, rhythms and harmonies completely annihilated then pieced back together with a radioactive fusion process.
Sunk Heaven seems to be alien to music and has no knowledge of what human melodies are. These sounds are completely foreign and intriguing, returning from unknown concepts to share new knowledge.
Jeph Jerman shares a piece titled “Spectral Quartet”. Sounds from a purposefully mangled cassette recording of work with fellow artists Tim Barnes, Bill Hutson, and Ted Byrnes. Difficult to tell what these sounds were originally, but there is a new fluidity to this sonic mutation. A conscious being flooded with a current of decipherable passages, but the high volume of flow causes the mind to gasp for air. Jeph Jerman has been recording since 1988, his
discography is massive and also noted in detail like a German scientist.
Somnoroase Păsărele finishes up with the final side D. The piece titled “Clar Cincisprezece” could be the most melodic of everything included on 7 & 7 : VOL. 1. Having listened to a good amount of work by artist Gili Mocanu, there is an understanding of how versatile
Somnoroase Păsărele compositions are. “Clar Cincisprezece” rests on a pillow of chaos with a blanket of beauty. A dreamlike journey through lucid fragments of both joy and fear. An incredibly nice way to end the first volume with a slight handhold on a sheer face of falling sonic debris.
Have pretty much said everything about this release a few paragraphs back. Not sure on the numbers in each edition, but 7 & 7 : VOL. 1 is available now. You can subscribe for all three and expect the second volume in January, the third in March. Anyone ordering from oversees with a subscription for all three will get all three upon completion. This reduces shipping costs.
Absolutely beautiful and at the farthest edge of the listening spectrum. Have learned so much from listening and writing this. Thank you to all artists involved and sPLeeNCoFFiN.
Excerpts
Comments