BLACK TO COMM – rückwärts backwards

(CD, Dekorder)

At times it is hard to define in electronic / ambient / experimental music between composition and construction. Most of the times even the distinctions between the two get blurred. Unless there is a certain theoretical element outspoken before the recording or production starts, the mashing of these terms is one of the main features of a lot of music from the fringe. Almost every artist or release on Dekorder had this opposition and its destruction at least as a subtext hidden somewhere inside. Most of what you can find on the label defies any kind of structural process of development along guidelines akin to the “rules” of classic composition or songwriting but prefers to tag along very subconscious and emotional lines, which are perfunctorily established, mutated and just as easily destroyed by the idiosyncrasies of the artist, the basic atmosphere and of whatever happens during the process of recording itself. Thinking about it, this very intimate touch and look into the artists mind gives a lot if not most releases on Dekorder its special warmth, depth and humanity. And that is even true for Hegre.

On “rückwärts backwards” the warmth and emotional lushness of the tracks / sounds also comes from their origin as old vinyl loops from operas, springtime field recordings – there is birdsong all over the first third of the records – and the sounds of old-fashioned instruments. The hissing and scratching still imbued from the vinyl loops and the recording of those instruments adds another layer of antiquity. The title refers to this using vintage sounds and instruments, though it hides that these sounds are being used in a deeply modern manner for ambient soundscapes and drones. So there is nothing conservative or reactionary about this record, rather the reviving of old found (?) sounds and the re-connotation within a (for most people anyway) still futuristic and avantgarde concept of music is brewing up a recipe for safeguarding the way into the future for at least some of the concepts developed in the last years.

The effect is an awesome listening experience, as you can almost feel the streams of emotion and innovation running from the past into the future right by your side. In parts the sounds are reduced to the crackle and hiss of old records under a worn needle and those sounds blown up to supersonic proportions, to detect their minutest details. At other times field recordings like birds or the wind rustling bring up pictures in the mind of long lost peaceful autumn days in your childhood. In between the mood changes between droning layers of minimalist sounds mixed with noise bristling with life and energy and sample-based tracks contrasting quite clearly discernible bitparts of sound sources.

I am hard pressed to find the “slightly disturbing atmosphere hidden beneath the surface” the info-sheet writes about, except in some instanced where monotonous signals grow from nothing into big wavering sirens and then into single-note wall of sound drones, as for instance in “El Huis pt.1”. Most of the tracks, for me at least, shine with warmth and light, embracing the listener in a squivering and hovering feeling of home and all the good of a personal history. The variety of emotions encoded in the eight tracks on “rückwarts backwards” is quite big, but overall and within my poinf of view they are all more on the positive and lively side. Some of them even happy. Maybe it is just the picture of a cat peacefully sleeping that can never evoke any kind of negative connotations but radiates a feeling of pure comfiness.

Apart from the overall effect it is also worthwhile and nicely fullfilling to open an ear towards all kinds of small things and parts that were mixed into the tracks. “March of the Vivian Girls” is a moving, wavering and finally accelerating drone that takes its title from a short span of marching drums mixed into the back. At times the noises and crackles in the back are taken from old records, at other times they seem to come from distorting digital sounds until they sound like the analogous recording of wood burning in a stove. Where do the birds come from? Where do the vocals come from? Where do the various kinds of noise come from? Let’s check the glockenspiel in all its traditional, folkloristic glory or is it just an incident of randomness? Let’s track back the backwards recorded sounds of some tracks, e.g. the very last one, back to the title and enjoy the fine wordplay that seems to spring from the thought. Sometimes in dealing with these more subtle and refined electronica-records they can only give you as much as you give back to them beforehand. In other words, it depends on you, the listener, how much you’ll get back from them.