It’s a strange, dark world that Anthony Reynolds and his collaborators, who include Martin Carr of Boo Radleys, create around the words culled from interviews conducted by Reynolds with one-time Angry Young Man Colin Wilson. The album begins with a blast of static distortion, before dolorous drones whirl around Wilson’s disembodied voice intones on human frailty and ‘why life fails us’. Despite his age and the words often being shrouded in reverb and dark rumbling ambience, the diction of the prolific author is remarkably crisp and clear, his text fragments delivered with authority.
There are many long, drawn-out passages where voices are simply distant sounds that fall, barely audible, amongst the creaking fear chords and impenetrable sounds of indeterminate origin. On ‘Why we make it difficult for ourselves’, Reynolds crackles and scrapes in the background, before eventually being swept away on a rising wave of drilling discord.
The gentle piano-led instrumental ‘Surprised by joy’ provides some levity, but maintains an atmosphere of solitude that’s accentuated by the oppressive dronefields of ‘The hill’ which immediately follows, Wilson’s words melancholy in their reflection. Even the light instrumental work that eddies around Wilson’s conversational pieces ‘New York Ozone memory’ and ’The colour and the light around us’ isn’t enough to lift the mood more than fleetingly.
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The cumulative effect is tangible, building an increasingly bleak and weighty atmosphere as the album progresses. But despite creating an unsettling and alien sonic vista, the tension that mounts is engaging and intriguing.
Wilson’s words are in many respects secondary to the dark, rumbling atmospherics of the sound recordings, although the two compliment one another perfectly, creating a remarkably well-balanced – if unsettling – listening experience.
Anthony Reynolds Online
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