des Esseintes / E.P.A. :: AZ50HD (Fin de Si

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(02.22.05) A split between Sweden’s des Esseintes and Australia’s E.P.A., AZ50HD
adroitly demonstrates that power electricians aren’t just bashing
machinery without plan. Not all noise and thunder is random fortuity;
in most cases, the decision to create howling walls of noise is a
conscious one and not just a studio accident that occurred when the
artist left tape running and stepped out for a sandwich. Both Magnus Sundström (des Esseintes) and Darrin Verhagen (E.P.A.) have much
more classically inclined projects and, in the case of AZ50HD, they
each reconsider a piece by the other in this vein.

While strands of noise curl and spark in the background, a chamber
orchestra plays out a soundtrack for an action film chase scene
(complete with the rising and falling sound of police sirens) for
Shinjuku Thief’s remix of the des Esseintes track. It’s an
interesting juxtaposition, especially as the remixes come before the
original tracks on this split release. Unlike pop song remixes which
are all about adding a techno beat to the core elements of the pop
song, the remixes here are collaborative efforts where the baseline of
a track is simply a suggested mood and everything can be further
changed to realize the final mutation. des Esseintes’ original track
isn’t as orchestrally cinematic as the Shinjuku Thief remix; that
piece is better suited as accompaniment to the growing tension of a
supernatural film.

des Esseintes redrafts E.P.A.’s “With Shredding Rubber,” distilling
the thirteen minute noise excursion into a five minute symphony of
slumbering martial drums and glacial tones that struggle to break
through the coruscating shower of noise. The full fury of “With
Shredding Rubber” is a frontal assault on your cranial receptors and
des Esseintes “recap” is a bombastic redrafting of the shrieking fury
of E.P.A.’s power noise. If the E.P.A. track is Ragnarok, then des
Esseintes’ “recap” is the final approach, the last outpouring of
courage and strength before being consumed by the conflagration at the
end of time.

As both original tracks are pulled from other CDs (the des Esseintes
is a Malignant Records release while E.P.A.’s can be found on Dorobo),
AZ50HD is not just an exploration of the cinematic skills of Sundström and Verhagen but also a sampler of other noisier
releases. As a fan of both aspects of these creators, I found AZ50HD
to be a great summary of their work: a little bit of noise (which is
all one really needs) to cleanse my head of idle synaptic garbage and
a bit of gothic orchestration to properly color my day.

AZ50HD is out now on Fin de Siècle Media.

  • Fin de Siècle Media Website
  • Magnus Sundström Portfolio
  • Darrin Verhagen Website
  • Verhagen Profile (Feb.2005)