|
 | Tuu: Terma (Fathom - 1998) Various ethnic instruments and electronics form the heady mixture of Terma by Tuu (Martin Franklin and Nick Parkin). Exotic touches of regional acoustics are provided by frame drums, clay pots, bullroarers, wind gongs and spirit flutes (to name only a few). But these elements never overpower the underlying, rather dark, heart of ambience. |
| Terma is relatively short, at not-quite-47-minutes, but much is packed into this time. Imagine breaking open a densely compressed, steamy cube of black tropical earth stolen in the night from some ritual ground; as it spreads before you, strange vapors rise and unknown lifeforms scuttle throughout it, and the sights and smells are evocative of primal forces you cannot begin to understand but touch you with a sense of dread and awe... well... it's something like that!
Djinn derives its power from the elastically resounding poundings of a frame drum, behind which slight electronics glisten in the dark. The rhythm ceases, revealing a fluctuating ceramic flute, before all quietens. The swirling synth of Water Memory wavers into soft focus, then is propelled by a slow drum rhythm. Like a snake's rattle, occasional shaker effects seem to warn, and deep, faraway rumbles echo that sentiment. The beats temporarily fade back, allowing the strong, sinuous flute strands to interweave across the foreground. The deep electric background drone and tiny whisper-like shufflings of Magus reek of darkness and danger. Emphatic notes from Parkin's Turkish ney twist like a serpent writhing over smoldering coals. The track resolutely builds in intensity, until it finally dissipates into nothingness. A shimmering of bossed gongs lead to Ghosts in the Landscape, the 8:51 long-cut. The flute sounds seem to be searching, meandering through the slow drumbeats and simmering haze. The eerie synthscape of Terma is visited by Franklin's buzzing bullroarer (with headphones, the binaural effect seems as if its whirring all around you) and distant rumbles. Everything within this musical zone seems compressed, by heat and by some unknown heaviness. Echoing gongs and light waves of synth blow in at the end to slightly alleviate the pressure. Shaker sounds skitter over the flat electronic backdrop of Plateau, which is soon joined by occasional passages of a spirit flute and resonant gong shadings. Gong-like synths feed the Serpent Fire and again, Parkin's Egyptian ney warbles ecstatically (or is it painfully?) through the heathaze which rises from the burning embers. |
| If you're in the mood for something both tropical and ominous, then open this delicious bundle of darkness. I'm giving it Both Thumbs because I appreciate having this exotically dark locale brought into the safety of my own living space.
Martin Franklin has created his own Tuu website, if you'd like to learn more about their project. |  |
 |