For those unfamiliar with the names, the contributors to this album – the second they’ve made ‘together’ have quite a musical pedigree. Al three list dEUS in their resumes, although at different times.
‘Pawlowski, Trouvé & Ward – Volume 2’ isn’t so much a collaborative work as a split release, with each artist contributing around a third of the material. Ward’s contribution fronts the album, his four five-minute instrumental works are soft, spiralling subaquatic soundscapes. The notes twinkle and twist, entwining to form listening experience that’s calming and immersive.
Palowski’s concept work of sorts, a ‘failed and lost 80s blockbuster movie soundtrack with commercials in between’ material offer quite a stylistic shift, ‘Attention: Music’ is altogether harsher, more overtly rhythmic, and a lot more disorientating. Atonal drones undulate over flickering, stammering beat and crackles of analogue distortion disrupt fragments of dialogue on. But ‘Quiz Master Ghost Animal 1: The Sadness Inside’ skips into quirky indie pop territory. Polowski throws down a raft of wibbly analogue synth pop which slalems wildly between tempos in an aural aneurysm. It’s a spasm smash, a frenzy of jolts and skewed loops that calls to mind JG Thirlwell’s early experimentations under the Foetus moniker. Some of it’s entertaining; some of it’s plain messy and headache-inducing. The final song – the big, credit-roller power anthem – is a nasty US chart rocker, the likes of which were ubiquitous in the 80s. Admittedly, he’s got the style nailed. You wouldn’t want to see the movie or the commercials if it actually existed.
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Trouvé’s 12 tracks are different again. Scratchy sociopathic sparseness, somewhere between The Velvet Underground and Silver Jews, his songs are by turns haunting and hypnotic. The heavy sludged-out psych rock of ‘Torch’ comes on like The Jesus and Mary Chain, and the droning melancholy of ‘Opening the Window on 16th June 2013’ contrasts with the wistful bedroom folk of ‘At a Different Speed’. It’s a bit of a mish-mash, but Trouvé is consistent in demonstrating his versatility.
As an album, it doesn’t hang together, at least in the conventional sense. As a tryptic of contrasting and complimentary musical perspectives, it does – at least to an extent.
Pawlowski, Trouvé & Ward – Volume 2 at Bandcamp
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