The result is more cryptic and hermetic than the previous release with a vast palette of aleatoric sound manipulations and sensient immersion in rituals taken from everyday life.
Tunisian sound explorer and artisan of liminal-blurry
This new album contributes to Unexplained Sounds Group’s constant fascination and research work into electroacoustic and experimental-tinged music coming from unusual continents and cultural cradles. After an immersion to foreign—but also antique—cultures with quite recommended compilations—targeting Indonesia to Japan, Far East and China’s contemporary electronic avant-gardism and esoteric soundscapes melting folkish instruments to various treatments and massive effects—Rafaelle Pellezza, the sound designer at the head of USG, invites us for the second time to appreciate the work of Rami Harrabi, Tunisian sound explorer and artisan of liminal-blurry then otherworldly tape loops, dronescaping laments; notably in his first release for USG titled Khushue.
A frog a gun and a sad man demonstrates a slight new musical direction with more dominant use of traditional instruments, heavily treated, but still focused on primordial resonances—taken from eastern lute and acoustic drums—punctuated by crackling found noises, echoing metallic drops, reflective praying voices, various sound sources, odd spoken words, occasionally enveloped by discreet minimalist reversed organic timbres. The result is more cryptic and hermetic than the previous release with a vast palette of aleatoric sound manipulations and sensient immersion in rituals taken from everyday life.
At the frontier between phonographic-monographic documents issued from daily poetical sacrality and experimental noises. This kind of music forges an intimate, shadowy and spiritual cloister in the mind and heart of the listener. If you are into culturalist/acoustic sound-mapping, harsh power electronics, and natural instrumentation subsumed by micro-noises, then this album is for you. Somewhere between Muslimgauze, Burial Hex, Schloss Tegal, and Angus MacLise.
A frog a gun and a sad man is available on Unexplained Sounds Group. [Bandcamp]
