Black Bough - In These Quiet Aberrations We Find Resolve

Black Bough

In These Quiet Aberrations We Find Resolve
self-released; 2013

3.8 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

Black Bough aka Blair Griffith is no newcomer to making noise. He has released seven full- length albums of improvised material. After taking a peek into his previous catalogue his latest entitled In These Quiet Aberrations We Find Resolve is quite a departure. The album contains two songs. The first being the title of the EP which tracks at 22:43 and the second called “Lost Cosmonauts” which tracks in at 13:10. These are tracks that have more in common with Keith Rowe and Fennesz than bands like Windy and Carl and Stars of the Lid. The sequences of sound are dark, hypnotic and often unsettling yet enticing because of the changes in the soundscapes themselves. I found these songs enjoyable similarly to how I found the songs on Keith Fullerton Whitman’s brilliant Playthroughs enjoyable. The songs don’t reach for crescendo but instead warp and manipulate over time as if you were watching the cell structure of microscopic animals evolve. This music would have been very fitting in a movie like “Enter the Void” which revolves around DMT, our consciousness after death, and reincarnation. Directors take note.

In These Quiet Aberrations We Find Resolve starts with a sine wave, which sound like it is traveling down a wormhole. Slowly passing by equations and quasars possibly ending up on the other side of the universe. The wave eventually changes and becomes broader, more ominous and stuck inside a black hole. At this point it is constantly moving but not fast. It is morphing like a sloth moves. You can hear it happening, you can hear vastness surround you in a vacuum as you look for the slightest evidence of light. The second half of the album, “Lost Cosmonauts,” does not see any light stuck inside the vacuum. Instead you get brought in even deeper, possibly never finding an escape route. As low frequency sine wave rumbles and molten lava grumbles this may have been what the earth sounded like 5 billion years ago when there was nothing more than single cell organisms on our surface. This album will be one that many will either not get or be something that fits nicely into their collection next to Kevin Drumm. For me this is a nice find that will have me anticipating his next effort,  

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