Annalized_Noiose - Esoion
A new album to review from the great occult-driven Italian label Industrial Ölocaust Recordings. Annalized_Noiose comprises two people, the first being Annalisa Pascai Saiu, an independent artist working with poetry, performance, and visual art. The second is Emilio Berné who is a drummer, and also an improvisational noise-artist as well. These two have come together to mix their creativity together, and they have released their second release (which is this one). I'm not sure, it might be a live recording. Anyways!
The artwork for the album cover is... quite jaw-dropping! Some kind of soft, thick, parchment sort of paper. Not actually sure how they have managed to print on it, when I first saw it I was thinking... is that some sort of pubic hair? Anyways! You open the parchment with some additional info inside, also there is a small WARNING note that tells you to wipe the CD clean before use... the strange parchment paper leaves some sort of dust on the CD! Interesting right? The first CD to clean for dust, not a vinyl! The CD is also completely black, with print on the other side offcourse. There is one track on the album, 41 minutes and 21 seconds.
The single track called Esoion starts in complete silence... about 0:45 the vocal parts start. Sounds like a rehearsal of some sort, with occasional hisses, noisy cracks, and the crows having a conversation. At around 2:39 noisy tone tunes in and hums into the listener's ear, a microphone hits some strings and with additional scratching noises.
At around 03:18 the vocal kicks in. Quite an unusual vocal performance, getting my mind back to Diamanda Galas´s Schrei X album from 1996. The vocals get more painful and desperate and reveal some kind of interesting Eastern influence here and there. Her style is sort of a mixture of performance, spoken words, and singing so far. At around 13:45 her voice fades in and out of distortion, with some interesting vocal-peaks to break the expectations. The noisy/soundscape elements in the background do... sort of... follow up on her anguished voice.
At around 21:53 my cat was scratching my cellar window to get in, I opened and he... didn´t want to enter my room since he had a feeling that there was a stranger in my room. Still enjoying the vocal performance so far, although I do find the background soundscape a bit... dry? It is a lovely and vibrant soundscape of microphone noise, but it gets a bit... tedious in the length. Additional sounds and effects would/could have carried the vocal parts just a bit further. Her method of providing more distortion to her vocals seems a bit... tedious as well... her vocal performance (without distortion) delivers more without it.
It´s a different thing to actually review a recorded performance without actually witnessing it. The released CD works not as an ordinary album as such (I think), but more of a supplemental object for those who saw the performance. I must admit, I really don´t have a single clue what this release is about (theme-wise)... I do get small hints and there... but just not enough for my constant curiosity. It bugs me offcourse, because if I had witnessed this performance, I might have had a better understanding of it.
Good stuff about this? It´s quite intimate and unique with some challenging and enduring vocals, and I would say that to enjoy this release... it does require a specific state of mind... and ears as well. Like I said before, it´s a recorded performance made out of sound. Bit of a challenge, try it out!.
Bandcamp (band):
Official website (label):