Moho Abyss is quite distant from Bianchi’s recent classics in darkly meditative, blurred-out melodic ambient, and instead targets its sound exploration toward spectrality, blooming cybernetic resonances, and hypno-ish synthesized pulses.
A blend of mechanical, post-human micro-noises
Maurizio Bianchi is certainly among the most obscure, yet still most intriguing, uncompromising, and original artists emerging from the early years of industrial music, power electronics, and transcendental noise. Based on an interview I conducted with him more than a decade ago—available in a book I wrote about the Italian underground and M.B.’s legacy—the man presented himself more as a conceptual artist than anything related to pop musical culture, even the underground one (so don’t expect any industrial music in the genre popularized by Throbbing Gristle, SPK, or Nocturnal Bleeding).
I recognize that the last few years have been hyperactive in terms of collaborations and reissues from his back catalog. I sometimes wonder if he himself has full regard for and appreciation of what is being done today. I place this topic in open debate. However, we can appreciate the legitimate role played by indie labels in restoring the important contribution this sound artist has offered: a dolorous, mesmerizing, and powerful sonic industrialism/isolationism, acting as a symbolic weapon in the face of our agonizing societies (check, for instance, reissues and new releases by Silentes, Old Europa Cafe, and Eighth Tower / Unexplained Sound Group). His neuro-electronic dramas, built on altered electronic patterns, white noise, and distorted piano clusters, sound like post-apocalyptic explorations dealing with biopolitics, mental disorientation, and mass psychosis.
Attenuation Circuit (a label owned by the sound artist behind the project Emerge) delivers here fine material from M.B. in collaboration with Luca Valisi and Monica Calanni Rindina (alias P.U.M.A.). The result offers a blend of mechanical, post-human micro-noises, whispering voices, sinuous textures, and molecular scintillations. The album is quite distant from Bianchi’s recent classics in darkly meditative, blurred-out melodic ambient, and instead targets its sound exploration toward spectrality, blooming cybernetic resonances, and hypno-ish synthesized pulses. This album establishes a stylistic bridge between Jürgen Karg, Kluster, Henri Pousseur, Randy Greif, and Ramleh. A highly recommended addition for completists and listeners fond of sonic exploration.
Moho Abyss is available on Attenuation Circuit. [Bandcamp]
