Genre: Avant-garde / Noise / Experimental Folk
Track Listing:
Side A - Gultskra Artikler – Berezka
01 Pervie Gusli
02 Figase
03 Berezka Take 2
Side B - Lanterns – Monkey Lament
01 Snake Ice
02 Dir Tup
‘Berezka’ is the obverse side of Russian Gultskra Artikler’s contribution. The three tracks of shimmered noise spread across the senses like rain on an undulating landscape where instead of drops there are leaden balls and splintered lances of sound – with both being large and constantly colliding, each fracturing to fracture again. It’s not a white-out of noise, far from it; restructured sound mimics noise. The desiccated clusters that form the mounds and patterns are shifting and malleable. Oddly, after two tracks of fresh experimentation, Gultskra Artikler melds melody by guitar and sparkling tones to his oddly fleshed sound-scape, propagating it with just enough eeriness to not be totally out of place, but nonetheless feels that way.
Two lengthier tracks comprise Lanterns offering on the fane entitled ‘Monkey Lament’. Hailing from another world away in Leeds, UK, they present a totally different face than that of the flipside with its stuttering rubber of noise. Drones form the filaments that feed the body of ‘Monkey Lament’ for the most part. Distorted guitars and harmonies fluctuate endlessly ever in slow crescendo and ascension, striving upwards in lonely hope. It has the tang of the post-rock about it stripped of percussion – a moment stretched and looped in a hopeless loop. Lastly, however, you are tripped off the rocking chair by a down-on-the-farm fingerstyle merry-go-round.
With such few tracks (thirteen minutes each) to convey the artists it is difficult to know whether or not some of these are experiments outside of their usual play-pen and both artists feature tracks incongruent with their own respective contributions.
The EP is limited and a vinyl-only release, of which unfortunately no comment can be made due to only being provided just the CD, which is included free with the vinyl EP – a nice feature.
