Voltigeurs - Voltigeurs

Turgid Animal, 2009

I dunno shit about Matthew Bower's personal life, but something must have gone seriously awry (I don't mean this is a bad thing) after he stopped recording as Sunroof! Because since then he's gone OUT, and has been carving and diving and climbing into the farthest reaches of mind/ space/ darkness. Voltigeurs is him and Skullflower live violinist/ additional drone scryer Samantha Davies. I thought this was released this year, but lo and behold it's been sleeping for two years. It seems on some level to proceed from or (more likely) be concurrent to his piece on the White Medal Split (that I posted here), in that kind of layered, tonal drone that's a wee bit less ear-piercing and feedback-warped than works like Circulus Vitiosus Deus, and certainly wayyyy less of that than Strange Keys to Untune Gods Firmament. Definitely as great as Circulus (still for me the pinnacle of Bower's work with the psychedelic modal blackened drone thing) and in spots almost better. The improvised ritual with Davies seems also to have a little of the wandering amorphousness of Hototogisu or Skullflower's recent live releases, but doesn't fall into the realm of total formlessness, his Mirag-derived metal raga ascensions and descensions are still majestically carving out the abyss here. Brilliant as always and looking forward to more from this collaboration.

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