Zond (SQR 0004)
Arto Artinian - electronics, flute, piano
Adam James Wilson - 7-string violin, classical guitar, electronics,
fretless guitar, guitarimba, harmonic canon, prepared guitars, piano
[ buy ] canvas mvt. I 1.3M mp3 sample
[ buy ] canvas mvt. II 632K mp3 sample
[ buy ] the backbone flute 1.1M mp3 sample
[ buy ] bleed the stone 1.4M mp3 sample
[ buy CD ]
[ view album credits ]
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Signal to Noise [ top ]
Zond ... features Artinian and Wilson in duo format. The disc consists of three large-scale semi-composed pieces,
although much of the time it sounds freer than
6000° Kelvin.
Like it's predecessor, the disc achieves an epic, lyrical quality without losing immediacy or clarity (even Artinian's
breaths are audible). In the final track,
bleed the stone,
Wilson plays alone, becoming a one-man universe via overdubbing. He bellows and fuzzes out on electric guitar, sculpts
rounded milkdrop tones on classical guitar, and layers the clanking madness of the harmonic canon over everything.
Although he plays none of these instruments in anything but a fleetingly recognizable idiom, the sounds still suggest
an abstract clash of civilizations. It's a great moment when he makes them all tumble down the same rabbit hole,
equipment and all.
Larry Cosentino, issue 38 :: summer 2005
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Splendid Ezine [ top ]
Zond is an undefinable, enormously challenging jazz-like experiment.
It isn't meant to be readily accessible, and requires that listeners possess intense patience and tolerance
for dissonant instrumentation. If you've ever wanted an improvised soundtrack to your most schizophrenic nightmares,
your search is over.
Zond's Adam James Wilson and Arto Artinian offer four otherworldly instrumentals, seemingly designed to tax the
patience and subvert the expectations of their unsuspecting audience with every passing measure. The Backbone Flute
is inspired by a Vladimir Mayakovsky poem, and consists of overdubbed, off-key flute maneuvering, spliced with dense
microtonality and punctured by bizarre electronic pads and mind-numbing timbral shifts. Sometimes the instruments sound
like elephants in distress, or other noises you might hear in an African jungle, and sometimes they sound like... well,
nothing on earth.
The Backbone Flute makes a perfect barometer for the disc's remaining compositions; if the description intrigued you,
the other three tracks won't disappoint. If it's not your thing, Canvas and its fellows won't make it any more accessible.
[The musicians of] Zond relentlessly conjure up nerve-jangling sonic assaults; their work would fit perfectly into a
Stanley Kubrick or Dario Argento film. Whether that makes for a particularly enjoyable listen is another question altogether,
but its effect is unquestionably singular and frequently breathtaking.
James Laczkowski, 2005
http://www.splendidmagazine.com/review.html?reviewid=1113562168852552
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Cadence [ top ]
Arto Artinian and Adam James Wilson are two musicians who seem to have
started their own label for the purpose of releasing all the
improvisational work they've done with each other and fellow musicians.
Zond has the two of them working as a duo on a variety of instruments.
Their improvisations have a ghostly atmosphere to them with
multi-tracked instruments echoing in and out of each other.
Canvas mvt I
is mostly violin and flute layered on top of one another with a
spooky whooshing noise in the background. On
Canvas mvt II
small bits of piano, breathy flute, and tiny guitar notes make up a prickly wall of
sound that gets denser and louder before Artinian's flute slowly rises
out of the mass accompanied by the steady drone of WilsonÕs violin.
Backbone Flute
actually doesn't have much flute to it. It's mainly a
feature for Wilson's billowing slide guitar and garbled violin with
flute decorating the edges.
Bleed the Stone
ends the CD in a really
abstract way with plucked and dampened strings, electric guitar, and
buzzing electronic noise. This CD shows the kind of interesting work
these two can do on their own and gives you an idea of what to expect
when they add others to the mix.
Jerome Wilson, Cadence Magazine, October 2005 issue, pp. 112-113
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