Article
Spotlight 6

Albums
17 Pygmies
Ælab
Aeroc
Adrian Aniol
Aleph
Artificial Memory Trace
B. Schizophonic / Onodera
Blue Fields
The Boats
Canyons of Static
Celer
drog_A_tek
Fennesz + Sakamoto
Marcus Fischer
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Daniel Thomas Freeman
From the Mouth of the Sun
Goth-Trad
Karol Gwózdz
Mark Harris
Inverz
Kingbastard
Tatsuro Kojima
Robert Lippok
Maps and Diagrams
Merzouga
Message To Bears
mpld
The New Law
Nuojuva
Octave One
Petrels
Puresque
Refractor
Lasse-Marc Riek
Jim Rivers
Dennis Rollins
Scuba
Shigeto
Susurrus
Jason Urick
VVV
Williamette
Windy & Carl
Zomes

Compilations / Mixes
DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives
Future Disco Volume 5
King Deluxe Year One
Phonography Meeting
Pop Ambient 2012

EPs
Blixaboy
Matthew Dear
Fovea Hex
Jacksonville
Kurzwellen 0
Phasen
Pascal Savy

Susurrus: Susurrus
Field Hymns

This self-titled set of full-frontal dronescaping by Susurrus (real name unknown) unfolds in two parts over thirty-one minutes but might be best thought of as a single, uninterrupted journey (the split design might be due to the cassette format, though a download version is available, too). That's because the piece develops organically, originating out of low-level quietude and gradually swelling in intensity.

It takes little time at all for the first part to get loud, as by the four-minute mark the space is filled with cavernous pulsations. Using feedback, loops, and myriad electronic sources as building blocks and recorded in Portland, Oregon directly to four-track cassette, Susurrus synthesizes the source material into a seething, industrial-tinged behemoth of at times blistering intensity. An arc gradually comes into focus as the material's electrical sheets expand into towering formations that are as thick and deadly as molten lava. Thirteen minutes into the first part, a startling hint of humanity appears at the periphery when a voice utters something unintelligible before the organ-like drone re-asserts itself. After a brief pause, the second half begins, in this case with guttural croaks and high-pitched flickerings underlaid by machine whirr before growing abrasive in its focus on sharp-edged slashes, nightmarish in the rise and fall of its diseased fluttering, and eventually harrowing in the alarm sounds that trigger.

I would be remiss in not noting that the dictionary defines susurrus as “to make a soft rustling sound; whisper; murmur”—which makes it an unusual moniker choice, obviously, in that the Susurrus material, on this release at least, is pitched at anything but a murmur.

February 2012