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Non Visual Objects: Surrealist Techniques (a.o. releases)

  Tobias

The most obvious example of this stylistic diversification must surely be “drink_deep”, Tomas Phillips’ tribute to the intensity of Rites of Spring, a both stupifyingly energetic and emotional punk band formed in the mid-80s. The group would only last two years and a single album (unsurprisingly titled “Rites of Spring”), but proved to be highly influential. On “drink_deep”, Tomas Phillips uses the songs of “Rites of Spring” to build warmly pulsating dreamscapes, which drift along softly yet remain focussed in the moment.

The technique of “exquisite corpse” was the basis for “falte”. The term describes a collaborational technique first used by the surrealists. One of the performers will begin with his contribution and reveal only the end of it to his colleague – who will, in turn, base his continuation of the piece solely on this short end-fragment. A set of compositions by Swiss artists steinbrüchel and Bern Schurer, first presented at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 2006 as a live-test of the “excuisite corpse” method, has now made it to “falte”. An MP3-extract reveals a music of great subtlety, pussyfooting through spaces of careful cathedral reverb. Certainly a release which sits comfortably in between the previous non visual objects releases.

A shared passion for Jazz Noir apparently was the motivation for Dawid Szczesny and Ignaz Schick to hit the studio. Spontaneous in nature, “The view underneath” sounds brooding and tense, caught somewhere between the hunger to try out different timbres and the desire to taste the depth of a particular mood.

Meanwhile, the antecedent release by non visual objects, “Extract” still manages to reap great reviews – including an extensive one by leading British Mag “The Wire”. Thanks to this combination of book and double CD, non visual objects has presented itself as a sort of platform for various scenes and genres, all loosely connected by their desire to explore the fine nuances between sound and silence.

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