Ophibre - Untitled Drones for Iron Oxide [2:00AM Tapes - 2010]Boston’s Benjamin Rossignol has been releasing his experiments with the properties of electronic sound since 2006, often accompanying his releases with objects such as small plastic bags filled with spice, sand or jigsaw pieces to form what he refers to as a “concrete poem”. Here though the object is the cassette itself as the two drones explore the effects that magnetic tape can have on extended tones. The first starts and ends as soon as the leader tape of side one is transported through the electromagnetic head. This gives a strong impression that this single, sustained chord from an organ is without a beginning or an end recalling the work of La Monte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music from the mid-sixties. And like Young’s drones the listener’s attention is drawn to the natural impurities caused by subtly colliding overtones within the DNA of the analog chord itself. Initially a majestic monolith, it soon becomes apparent that these few, relentless tones are alive with coruscating variations writhing like droplets of oil on a water’s surface. Opening, absorbing, mutating and closing in on themselves, the elements dance around a central tinnitus, all evolutionary accidents of varying resonant frequencies as interpreted by electromagnetism. Coming across like a choir of electrical engines from domestic appliances, the second piece here starts with a cold metallic whine, warmed by slower oscillations and offset by the occasional echo. Percussive elements emerge from the blend, often sounding like a field of crickets, before the combination of what could be vacuum cleaners and electric shavers begins to take on the properties of layered, droning electric guitar with cyclical modulations that plough through the electric fog at a gracefully slow pace not dissimilar to Sunn O)))’s more minimal movements. Feedback wails like gulls and even whispering, breathy elements rise up within the soupy pulsating mix. All these layers make side two feel both more dramatic yet less impactful than the first side’s mercurial majesty. But both adeptly demonstrate the rich, shifting symbiotic sounds that can be yielded from minimal matter and pondered process on a magnetic medium. Russell Cuzner
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