Yang-Tul

Like Ralf Wehowsky's other collaborations with artists like Lionel Marchetti and Bernhard Gunter, this album involves exchanges of sound material for rework and recomposition. Released only on vinyl, side one consists of Wehowsky's material reworked by Chalk, and side two of Chalk and Lanzillotta material reworked by Wehowsky. The first side is in line with his work with ORA and Organum -- ambient, multi-layered and organic. A slowly undulating drone starts quietly, builds to a certain level, and stays there for the remainder of the piece. Great whooshes of white noise travel from one end of the sound field to the other, and a periodic click slowly becomes audible. About a quarter of the way through, slightly more ominous noises interrupt occasionally, but although they become continuous they remain submerged deep in the mix, barely audible under the drone. This is a superb piece of relaxing, organically developing music. Although side two starts by covering some of the same territory, the drone is not as much in the foreground, which it shares with a repeated melodic figure. But crashes and bangs appear, noises like snapped piano strings, building to a climax of layered wailing banshees, loud and intense. The development of the entire piece, from the opening melodic figure to the banshees, undergoes a shortened replay in the last two minutes before suddenly stopping, and the piece closes with a quiet murmur. This album, like the collaboration with Marchetti, continues Wehowsky's exploration of new methods of collaboration which reached their pinnacle on Tulpas (the definition of a Tulpa is included on the sleeve of Yang-Tul), and Wehowsky manages to create collaborative works that retain the individuality of all participants. ~ Caleb Deupree|