Ominous, languorous, tense… ‘Etude Begone Badum’ is a strange and haunting work, and it doesn’t include the simultaneously-released single ‘Bone Alphabet’. That’s not all that’s strange about ‘Etude Begone Badum’, which sees Stene tackling works by various contemporary composers with his own experimental conceptual approach to sound.
Chimes, gongs and bells chime, warp and distort, the sounds bending, melting and fluid. There are moments during ‘Black Horizon’ which sees piano strings ping and springs snap, while on ‘Silver Street Car’ a constant ringing becomes almost unbearable over the course of 11 minutes. The final track, ‘Ricefall (1)’ is a lengthy composition of clanking bottles and a deluge of… rice. A downpour, a veritable storm of rice. Clever and unusual, ‘Etude Begone Badum’ is an innovative and intelligent work that explores unusual territory with some impressive effects.
|
|
