MAURIZIO BIANCHI +
MAOR APPELBAUM

"Environmental Meditations"

Topheth Prophet - 2007

CD

This new release of notorious Israeli label Topheth Prophet sees legendary Italian noise forefather Maurizio Bianchi joining forced with Maor Appelbaum, an experimentalist from Israel active with his own self-named label, as well as with countless other projects. The minimal graphic presentation and enigmatic inlay notes don't tell us much about the CD, which turns out to be made of six inexorable and monolithic tracks.

If you are familiar with Maurizio Bianchi, you know what to expect. For nearly 30 years he has been pushing the limit of noise and its possible developments, choosing to explore its subtle and subconscious aspects. "Environmental Meditations" fits among his latest outputs, those showing a reborn interest for the experimental and noisy matter, in opposition to the melodic and ambient sound of his unexpected return on the scene some ten years ago, and stands undoubtedly among the most radical. The whole work is a collection of oppressing walls of noise, hypnotic and powerful, with few industrial rhythms surfacing here and there, sinister electronic waves resembling alien melodies, and freezing atmospheres where no human presence is felt.

This CD is not exactly the most accessible release you can come across these days, especially when you discover that the nearly all the tracks' running time is over 10 minutes, with third one "Mesencephalon" being a 19 minutes mass of loops! The listening is therefore recommended to who's following every step of Maurizio Bianchi's adventures and to passionate explorers of the most uncompromising borderline sound abuse. All the others must be careful and watch out for their mental sanity, should they decide to approach this hallucinatory journey through environmental meditations.

- Simon V.

Website: http://www.topheth.org

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tophethprophet