Two more releases from the label Not On My Watch…sorry, I mean No Part Of It…Daydream Bereaver is by Arvo Zylo, the fellow who runs this label as far as I can make out. Seems he issued this item in 2022 as a vinyl LP in a run of just five copies (which is kinda hard to believe), but if true then today’s CD is a reissue of same, including two bonus cuts which originally appeared on Heaven Brain (or is it Brain Heaven? The Discogs page is confusing…) It might be that this artiste, who also does a radio show called The Delirious Insomniac Freeform Radio Show, delights in giving out misinformation in order to conceal his tracks, but he wouldn’t be alone in following such a strategy.
This album opens with two 20-minute tracks which offer a rather sinister and wholly unvarying drone, perhaps made up of loops and repeats, but cleverly blended and muddled to conceal the joins, as an oil painting where the outlines have been smeared and blurred, permitting the viewer to perceive all manner of horrors lurking within. The plan has been to sustain these ghastly sonic apparitions for a very long time and never allow any form of resolution or modulation, as you might get in “conventional” musical form, with the net result that listener is held in a constant state of anticipation. Some might call it a state of dread. Of the two, the second track is slightly less insufferable and if we’re to be condemned to an aural Hell for eternity, you might as well choose this one as the accompaniment for your never-ending torment. Whether it’s intentional or not, this second track does allow for the illusion of space in among its seething particles of abstract fog, unlike the very closed-off dimensions of its fellow. Where 99% of contemporary experimenters seem to drift into ambient music as the soporific drug of choice and are content to build a comforting space, Arvo Zylo has chosen quite a different path, serving us warm semolina laced with opiates and nepenthe.
The two bonus cuts, ‘Für Elysium’ parts I and II, are somewhat more accessible, and there’s at least the ghost of a melodic snatch hidden in among its cryptic conundrums, plus the surface sound is two degrees less threatening. I think the creator’s layering and loop-technique are slightly easier to perceive here, but even so that doesn’t weaken the magic of these strong incantations. It’s also interesting that the title appears to reference ‘Für Elise’, one of the more popular Beethoven compilations, which might be intended as a satirical dig at classical music, or popular music, but even so I notice he’s not averse to drawing inspiration from classical mythology with his use of the word Elysium. To complete the package of mixed signals, we have the cover artworks – on the front, there’s a take on the “sad clown” trope which may not be especially original, but it does set the morbid tone; likewise the back cover, an abstract painting in purples and blacks (Rothko colour scheme) which invites the viewer to dip into the pool of the unknown. Inside, there’s a black and grey visage which, despite the vague and uncertain features, appears to be scowling at us from the deepest pit of Hades.
The self-titled item by Illusion Of Safety and Z’EV was released in 2022. I see it dates back to a period around 2008-2012, and represents only a small part of the work they did together at that time. The release also came out as a vinyl LP released, or distributed, by nine other international labels, each of whom added their catalogue number – these include Korm Plastics, Public Eyesore, and many others.
Z’EV (Stefan Weisser) and Illusion Of Safety (Daniel Burke) achieved these two long tracks by the tried and trusted method of long-distance mail collaboration, sending each other recorded sounds in jiffy bags, and inviting all manner of editing and transmutation from the hands of their compadres. The very title of the first track, ‘A Strategy of Transformation’, pretty much tells you this is what’s going on, and so successful have the creators been that you’re unable to recognise a single familiar sound in these 21:29 mins, instead faced with a cold and alien array that offers few pockets of comfort to the tempest-tossed voyager. And yet there’s a compelling pull to these strange whirlpools and small eddies of sound. If nothing else, the grace and delicacy with these strands are spun would make even the proudest spider turn in his shingle. According to Creaig Dunton of Brainwashed, what we’re hearing is treated percussion, treated synths, and field recordings; Dunton apparently finds it a violent and chaotic collage, but that’s quite some way from what I hear.
On ‘Smaller Revolutions’, the effects are even more subtle and ingenious, and one is drawn even deeper into this unusual world with less of the vaguely unsettling atmosphere in evidence. The whole project is about change, changing sounds; it seems that Z’EV and Illusion Of Safety had met up in 2007 at an even in Chicago, and Weisser approached Burke with the idea of a mail collaboration, sending him some sounds next year. They were all acoustic recordings, yet Burke was struck by how they sounded as if they were actually electronic, and – despite Z’EV’s known genius as a percussionist – didn’t appear to have been created by percussive methods. It seem like Burke added a lot to these sources – synths, field recordings, samples, electro-acoustic treatments – but at all times his plan was to let Z’EV’s work shine through, wishing to remind the listener that this complex and semi-mystical fellow was not simply about “banging and clanging”; indeed Z’EV was always keen to challenge this misapprehension of his work, where the popular misconception was of a man hammering sheet metal and drainpipes. As this record shows, the range, variety and subtlety of Z’EV’s sounds was remarkable, and unique.
I also learn from reading about this that Burke stopped being Illusion Of Safety around 2014 and went under the name of sounderror for a time, but now IOS seems to have resumed; Arvo Zylo reminds us that Burke was one of the founding fathers of 1980s experimental cassette culture, and his influence on so-called industrial / experimental / noise / ambient music is extensive, as well as what Zylo shrewdly calls “non-denominational” music.
From 28 September 2022.