Miracle Of Love - You will Be Free

It´s summertime, love is in the air and people are happy in the warm sunlight. But every now and then thundering lightning and pouring rain will come down after a hot season. Miracle Of Love (in that sense) works with a sensation of physical relief, I am talking about masturbation (Or am I?) no ... I am talking about how one will physically feel when the rain and the thunder come down... after a VERY hot day! 

The act-name Miracle Of Love (plus the album title) looks like a new Swans-related/side-project release, I don´t think that the act-name hails from the hit-single by Eurythmics. Although I can assure that it doesn't sound like Swans, or Eurythmics for that matter!. Primal and heavy industrial-ambiance would be my words for it, somewhere along the line between the mid-era neo-classical ambiance of Raison d´être (Empty Hollow Unfolds) and the harsh monotonic death-industrial sounds from Megaptera. In other words, this act which hails from Rome sounds more like an early Swedish CMI-act then an Italian one (And there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong about that. Limited released as a BEAUTIFUL (and completely black) CD inserted in a nifty slip-cover (See below). I don´t know how limited it is since I cannot locate the info regarding the exact number of releases pressed. Either way, better be quick than slow with this one. You can find it via the label´s Bandcamp site (Also see below).

The release/album and the sounds kind of works in the same fashion as when our favorite Cenobite speaks the immortal words ´Angels to some, devils to others´. It contains beautiful almost angelic synth-ambient melancholic-moments and then next you are deliberately thrown into a cage with venomous snakes! 

But still, the concept of the soundtrack/mood maintain its chosen aesthetic. You will encounter distorted guitar-loops, angelic/orthodox choirs, machine room-sounds, whispering voices, proto dungeon-synth melodies, harsh noise-aggression, even beautiful acoustic guitar moments. All of this being perfectly packed in that classic industrial-ambient/ritual-industrial sound-setting! 

From start to finish, it is a fantastic and terrifying journey... and yes!... It will set you free! All the highly individual tracks have all been crafted beautifully together to create this magnificent soundtrack. A 2019 must!  

Bandcamp (Label):

https://overturemilitia.bandcamp.com/album/you-will-be-free

Maurizio Bianchi & Pharmakustik - Zersetzung by Kristian Robert Carter

The Oxford University description of decomposition is as follows -

" the state or process of rotting "

Zersetzung is the German word for decomposition.

Longtime MB collaborator and audio engineer Siegmar Fricke are Pharmakustik and he knows a lot about decomposition. He has been clinically dissecting sound for over three decades, critically analyzing the component molecules of audio data and meticulously documenting the sonic debris. Assembling the shards of sound into towering superstructures of fragile geometry. Constructing monoliths of complex patterns both dense and weighty but possessing an air of fragility as if the huge wall of drone he has constructed could be swept away with a simple flick of the wrist. His digital experimentation is as deep as the ocean itself but just like the ocean waves they pour forth and recede into the distance, in constant movement. Back and forth. Like time itself. Inexorable and unstoppable.

Everything decays.

All matter is in a constant state of decomposition.

One could say that life itself is one slow drawn-out process of undoing.

The moment we are born we begin to fall slowly to pieces.

Our cells divide, break apart and we eventually end up as an atomized dust, returned to the state of nothingness from whence we emerged.

Utilizing raw materials and field recordings from the legendary Italian electronic musician Maurizio Bianchi, Pharmakustik has tried to identify the nature of decomposition and decay inherent within the recordings supplied by Mr. Bianchi.

The four tracks upon this beautifully packaged release are the exploration of the decay that Mr. Bianchi recorded on a small handheld recorder. The ambient sounds of his home city of Milan are broken down into granular particles of pure noise and treated with layer upon layer of technology. What was captured in the original field recordings is given a new lease of life by the cryptic mining of the decomposition that is built into everything that exists upon this planet and every single object, person, animal or vegetable that has ever existed?

Pharmakustik strip away the sound of life itself to reveal the slow decomposing collapsing energy of nature and time.

Cracking static and crumbling waves of sound that are enveloped within a huge echo chamber give this album a claustrophobic air. Unusual spirals of noise twist and undulate like medieval mythic serpents, their presence is felt but they never become fully visible. Remaining at the periphery of awareness.

The second track sounds as if waves are crashing onto a vast deserted beach, the wave of sound crunching into the sand and then slowly receding leaving behind freshly deposited digital shingle that crackles with cobalt electricity.

The third and fourth tracks sound as if they have been recorded within a huge decaying industrial complex that is slowly falling to pieces, the individual sections of disused machinery captured and amplified as they are consumed by the passage of rot, rust, and entropy.

Siegmar Fricke hails from Germany and during my research into the term Zersetzung I discovered that the former East German Republic ( DDR ) had a covert surveillance program with the same title.

The Stasi used analog equipment to monitor and police dissidents imposing a sense of paranoia and mistrust in those who were targeted for surveillance.

It is not known if there is any allegorical link to either the process of decomposition and the Stasi surveillance program but one can imagine the sense of claustrophobic weight that was leveled at the surveyed dissidents especially on track three with its muffled voices and helicopter like sounds that flicker and dance across the speakers.

Whatever angle one approaches this album from it is impossible not to be consumed entirely by its dense weight and complexity.

Having worked together for many years Pharmakustik is still finding ways to explore and develop the ideas and sounds of MB.

Highly recommended.

MB (Official site):

http://www.menstrualrecordings.org/maurizio_bianchi.htm

MB (Wikipedia):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurizio_Bianchi

Pharmakustik (Bandcamp):

https://pharmakustik.bandcamp.com/

Pharmakustik (Facebook):

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Pharmakustik-news-265931236771221/