Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Keiji Haino ( 灰野敬二 ) - The Book of Eternity Set Aflame (1996)

| Avant-Garde | Noise | Experimental Rock |
|
Experimental Electronic | Psychedelic |

This one is a pretty tough album to find around (for Keiji Haino's other releases, check out here). This CD contains 70 minutes of music from 1995 in the form of three long, untitled tracks of spiritual lift-off. Not using overdubbing, as most of Keiji's records. One of my favorite albums from him.

Track 01 is a 18min long solo electric guitar, pedals and amp stack overload with tons of subtle, high-pitched string wailing occurring under washes of non-generic feedback, ending with a very jarring and painful series of aluminum slashes.

Track 02 is a 12-minute, ugly/beautiful, brooding lake of electronics that is excellent for a long night swim alone. The supremely tortured vocals appearing later can make anyone shiver of fear.

Track 03 Clocks in at 39 minutes. It is another extended foray into Keiji Haino’s infinite interior and our reality’s infinite exterior. It’s a swirling galaxy of endless solo guitar mangling that starts off in the heavy improv mode, with his patented stuttered/spluttered vocals thrown in, and eventually coalesces into an incredibly dense electrical storm. The last 10 minutes mellow into an incredibly moving, quiet cloud of amp hum that sounds like a billion year-old signal coming from some dead radio station on the far edge of the universe. Near the end, Keiji Haino’s voice—now so beautiful and gentle—cuts straight to the core as the sound fades.

Catalog: FE-036 (Forced Exposure)
Album overview on Arcane Candy
On Last.fm
Download

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