Monday, May 10, 2010

Faust & Nurse With Wound - DIsconnected (2007)

















Two legendary entities from the experimental hinterlands unite for this challenging collaborative outing. Krautrock icons Faust team up with ferocious British electronics experts Nurse With Wound resulting in a line-up featuring Zappi Diermaier, Steven Stapleton, Jean-Herve Peron, Colin Potter and Amaury Cambuzat. Although the initial psychedelic benevolence of 'Lass Mich' is redolent of the Faust crew, it's not long before the far-flung concrète machinations of NWW take a stranglehold on the album's sonic make-up.

The album's title track is an unsettling drone piece, loaded with tension and a jarringly discordant conglomeration of organic and synthetic tones. After eight and a half minutes or so have expired you'll think you're listening to some sort of unholy, monastic chanting, but soon the comparatively soothing sounds of hand-played percussion establishes a welcoming rhythm, and the disjointed electroacoustic weirdness of
'Tu M'entends?' fires up.

Finally, closing piece
'It Will Take Time' evokes the disorientating wave systems of 'Disconnected' before gradually slipping into a kind of elongated gong resonance at the end. Compelling stuff from two remarkable groups.

1 comment: