- In the pre-Stalin Russia of the early 1900s, innovations in sound art were so frequent that the era has been called "the most fertile and adventurous period in the history of sound experiments." One of its pioneers, Vladimir Popov, created a series of mechanical "noise instruments" that included the "bottlephone," a collection of bottles hanging from a ceiling, and a drum made from a saucepan. Apparently, one of his intentions when creating these tools was to mimic the clatter of the burgeoning industrial revolution.
In 2014, Berlin-based duo Lumisokea recorded some of Popov's inventions. The percussive music Koenraad Ecker and Andrea Taeggi created with that source for Transmissions From Revarsavr strongly suggests churning machinery and clanking assembly lines. The rhythms are so heavy and insistent, they take on a physical quality. Subtle electronic backgrounds accent the relentless hammering, but everything serves the domineering rhythms.
Sometimes the duo's bottomless beats move from impressive to oppressive. All the crashing and drilling in "Uroboros" evokes the throbbing "Afro Noise" of Cut Hands, albeit with less breathing room. More often, though, Ecker and Taeggi's piercing pulses are like a glorious trepanation, drilling your skull to transport your mind.
Transmissions From Revarsavr might have been monotonous if not for a few crucial tracks. In these pieces Ecker and Taeggi prove masterful at crafting hidden echoes and far-off reverberations. The album peaks when those phantom noises haunt its longest track, closer "Nanissáanah." Here, all the sounds behind the percussion are placed upfront, which opens up Lumioskea's tantalizing sound world to let us in.
Tracklist01. Generation Z
02. Buk
03. Whirling Dervishes
04. Hyman Otor
05. Uroboros
06. Engrams
07. Nanissáanah