Sixth in the “Product” series, here comes a beautiful split CD which is rather different from the usual criteria of this ever-so-surprising label, being mostly centred around hypnosis and bewitching soundscapes, with engrossing effects on the psyche as a primary consequence. Ireland-based, Poland-born Pawel Grabowski presents a long composition called “But I’m not”, where obfuscated resonance and electronic haze ensure a lot of room for the mind to roam; his music springs from pretty unrecognizable sources, a malleable yet quite mysterious matter generating what’s the most static piece on the album. Portuguese Jorge Mantas (The Beautiful Schizophonic) who – like Grabowski – has had a recent release on Belgian ambient label Mystery Sea, here offers his most accomplished work to date; “Love songs for a psychoacoustic girl” is made of ten interesting episodes where voices, environmental sounds and samples – even from thrash and death metal – find a unique confluence into an alien marine atmosphere in which subsonics and haunting repetitions get their due space without overstaying their welcome. But the disc’s masterpiece is “Natureza morta”: James Eck Rippie’s fascination with turntables playing looped snippets of classical music is finely balanced by Paulo Raposo’s puzzling digital disturbance and attentive processing. The couple takes our hand to lead an uncomparable dance towards oblivion, forgetting everything else around in almost 20 minutes of blissful indetermination.
Massimo Ricci