We’ve been promising for a fair while now to pop in on the unexplained sound folk, happen it’s just as well that we hqve because they’ve just released a newly peeled anthology / retrospective that shines a revealing light on the eclectic craft of Michael Bonaventure. Entitled ‘works 2008 – 2017’, this eleven-track gathering provides not only a select picking of compositions from the last decade but also exemplifies the depth and breadth of styles, tonalities and sonic phrasing drawn forth through the prism of noise, chamber drone and experimental sounds as viewed through a classically trained eye. To this end, we’ve concentrated our minds and ears on just three selections, a choice that will hopefully serve as evidence of the reach and craft of this unique sound alchemist. First up on the inspection table, ‘celestial objects’ as the title might give ample hint, is a dream dazed visitation, a threading of a myriad of silvery choral corteges, the effect, one of ethereal displacement, the mosaics dissolving and dissipating to create something adorably trippy, imagines as were, some kind of white light occurrence as the physical morphs into the spiritual, really is quite trance not to mention serenely peaceful. In sharp contrast, at 10 minutes in duration, ‘dead electronics’ veers into the darker terrains of dronal electronica and processed / manipulated sound, its grainy toning and showering of noise bursts, reminiscent of Revenant Sea’s more extreme output I should add, gives the impression of somehow being hand cuffed to the underside of a hulking extra-terrestrial spacecraft in the midst of some self-detonation sequence, very bleak and isolationist. Last up for this brief visit, ‘encounters’ offers a joyous expression of radiance, utilising processed vocals by way of monastic chants and church chorals being stretched, cut and looped all collectively pressed upon a backdrop of ethereal pulsars, something truly jubilant emerges from the grooves as though the church bells like peel of a celestial calling. https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/works-2008-2017
the sunday experience 