Instrumental music in the post-age exists in a world that seems to teem at the edges of what’s considered ‘popular’ music. It represents the farthest body from the gravitational center, the Oort cloud of a solar system that consists of instruments plugged into amplifiers and bodies that produce sound through brute force. Black Aleph exists in this extraterrestrial cloud, a trio of experimental musicians from down under that are pushing the edges of what can be done musically with some of the more unique instruments that make up the celestial bodies of rock and roll. Consisting of Lachlan Dale on guitar and effects, Peter Hollo on cello and effects, and percussionist Timothy Johannsen, Black Aleph channel the sonic energy of Justin Broadrick, Neurosis, Godspeed You! Black Emperor as well as some of the adventurous work of Sunn 0))) and Earth. Their use of non-traditional instruments, as well as their approach to the live work as part of the art they produce, make them a uniquely exciting band in the world of experimental music.
Filmed live at Bakehouse Studios in Melbourne, the video premiere of “Precession”, from their upcoming album Apsides, is a testament to the craftsmanship with which the three musicians approach their artistic rendering. A simple, but elegant visual arrangement draws the listener and viewer into their orbit. Bathed in blacks and browns, lit in the soft light of incandescent bulbs, the camera slowly revolves around the band, a slight change in the Euler angle, a wobble upon the orbital axis.
The music is equally warm and equally elliptical. Peter Hollo’s over-driven cello is the sound of the Earth’s magma slowly cooling to bedrock. Timothy Johannsen deftly plays the Iranian daf drum alongside. The two combined produce an almost primordial soup of sound, cellular structures that have just started to coalesce into the first burgeoning life forms on a floating rock in space. On top of all of this, Lachlan Dale’s guitar slowly seethes and groans, mirroring the growing pains of a slowly evolving Earth until a multi-celled layer of guitar loops and arpeggios sees the band reach a pinnacle of existence during its eternal orbit around the sun. In the video, the band members all face each other in a circle, all parts of the same organic musical being, a physical and psychic shift in their immediate space, a deliberate and intentional approach. According to cellist Peter Hollo:
‘There’s something about musicians playing in a room together that’s unassailable. There is also something about an ensemble playing to each other, facing each other, playing in consort. With that in place, our cinematographer brought the idea of constant circular motion, capturing each musician turn by turn. It’s a way of seeing this music being created in front of you, almost being part of it.’
The upcoming Apsides deals with the immensity of space and motion, an audacious concept for any album, much less a debut one, and the eternal battle between darkness and light. There’s no doubt, based on the refinement the band brings to “Precession”, that Black Aleph is ready to make a bold statement in the world of experimental music. Indeed, it may cause the Earth’s orbit around the sun to wobble just a tiny bit as it feels the full thrust of the band’s tectonic shift.
The album will drop on October 25th on Dale’s own excellent Art As Catharsis and dunk!records. You can pre-order Apsides on Bandcamp, and be sure and follow them on Instagram. You won’t regret it.
