SISTER OVERDRIVE – annick /
philomela
(CD, low impedance)
Structural, conceptual,
synthetic ambience, and if you believe that is a paradox in itself, you
better listen up and get immersed in these sounds. Because ambient music
only lives, or rather creates itself, in two very different atmospheres.
Either it crawls into the back and remains unlistened and subdued, outside
the concentration of the consciousness, but then it also forms and
influences the mind and emotional balance of the people in its area. Or it
is far in the foreground, submerges everything in its wake in a slow,
sometimes gentle, sometimes forceful wave of sound and makes the listener
surrender to its might. So, transcendental drowning or careless sunbathing,
the choice is at the listener’s side. Personally, I don’t like
sunbathing, both for the unproductivity of it and for the health risks
involved. I get my dose of vitamin D, don’t worry, but not by doing
nothing.
Giannis Kotsonis aka Sister
Overdrive carefully assembled two sets of five parts of ambient music that
travels the area from atmospherical, ephemeral, reverbing drones to noise
constructions paired with field recordings. (steps following someone
somewhere, a closing door, even a kids queekie toy) back to dark and heavy
drones. Sometimes these are layered in multiple cascades of contradicting
and synergetic voices. Othertimes there seems to be only the most simple
construction of sounds, just one, finely woven soundscape or even note.
Howling winds drive in at times and leave an eerie and spooky atmosphere.
Radiant lights shine through the mist at dawn. You’ll find yourself at a
seaport dreaming about travels as well as in a long sleep in your own inner
self and mind. Echoes and waves of a lot of things randomly (or seemingly
randomly, because on the whole it seems very constructed as well) enter and
leave, ebb and flow.
While “Annick” seems to be
more directed towards the aural depiction of somebody’s daily ados,
“Philomela” is the more sophisticated, high brow piece. Not at all
meaning that “annick” is not fascinating or not up to par in ambience
noise with the latter, but “Philomela” seems to be more artistically
inclined, more theoretical in structure and viewpoint. But probably that
impression is just from knowing that is was originally made up for a theatre
performance. (Some theatre that must be. I’d like to see it, as of lately
I have found a new passion for theatre and performance of roles.) Therefore
it seems to be more slowly paced, with distortion effects added. And for the
sake of truth, it has to be added, that you won’t be able to check –
definitely not at first listening or second – when one part of what piece
has started or ended. Unless you are checking the clock on your CD player,
and then it becomes quite clear, where the breaks should be. But if you get
immersed in the force field of this CD then all you’ll know is that within
the blink of your inner eye you have travelled from one place to a
completely different one.
The most fascinating thing to
me about ambient music, or this kind of noise drones, because there is a big
difference between ambient music and ambient music, is the way it forms your
mind and influences your thinking. How it surges some ideas to the
foreground of your brain and subdues others. Never miss a chance to find out
what lurks in the undusted corners of your mind.
