Another one for Guillaume Cazelet, the prolific artist from avant-garde icons Neptunian Maximalism and his solo black metal project Ôros Kaù. This time around Cazelet collaborates with Anton Ponomarev, a fellow maniac from free improvisational fiends P/O Massacre. With their new work, Pyrocene, the duo lets go completely of any form or notion and drives straight into the abstract domain of drone, noise, and musique concrete.
The 40-minute-long journey of a track features a stunning progression. The dark ambient beginnings come together, crafting a mystical and inherently dangerous setting. Everything from there on is weaved around these distorted, percussive blips, seemingly jack cables trying to connect to some otherworldly input. The feedback encapsulates everything, creating a horrific background from which there is seemingly no escape.
The presence of other elements suddenly dawns, at first, there is the abstract representation of a trumpet, laying down further drone foundations. Then it is the piano making an appearance halfway into the journey, completely altering the experience. Suddenly, there is a definition and a solid form that the darkness takes on. At that stage, the electric guitar properly digs its teeth into the fabric of the recital, adding dim colors with its brilliant distortion and feedback. Topping it all off is the throat-singing, another deconstructed representation of the human touch that has been mutilated to resemble something hostile. And still, in one final, rebellious act, Pyrocene sees the electronic applications putting on their alien touches, making the final ascent towards the astral form.
As a last gift, James Plotkin provides a re-interpretation of the track, focusing more on its drone dimension. Here, the approach has a grand characteristic, an overwhelming manifestation that bloats out all light. It acts as an excellent counterpart to this sonic journey from Ponomarev and Cazelet and gives a close to this immersive journey.
