vox barbara: (de)Constructed Ghosts

voxb-dcg.jpg (10k) vox barbara: (de)Constructed Ghosts
(Little Man - 2000)

Operating under the nom-de-noise of vox barbara, Frank Smith has been exploring "audioluminescence", the audio counterpart of Kirlian Photography (you know, those shots of life-force electrical fields which look sorta like spooky reverse-x-rays)...

Field recordings from around the world and computer audio files have been subjected to the effects of illegal "acoustic warfare" software to (de)construct (de)Constructed Ghosts whose strange, electrically-discharged "auras" are captured here...

Are the sounds you hear re-processed site recordings of a cement mixer in Cambodia, or the random sonics of Smith's Power Mac... your guess is as good as any. Noisily rhythmic, Electrical Purdah bursts right into its pulsating patterns, then segues into the quieter depths of Circuit Trance, whose murky ripples soon begin their own deeply grooving cycle. Sparking in staccato sputters, Embedded Controller (2:23) energetically rivals other artificially-induced forms of industrial/micro-noise.

As if from a construction zone at the gates of Hell, slow-motion clangs emerge from within a grumbling fogbank of ionized soundparticles as Ritual Dissection (7:30) observes unknowable activities. Bubbling with chaotic aural explosions Artificial Curiosities is a streaming volcano of unidentifiable entities, slurred beneath, then overtaken, by an ever-growing rivulet of liquid darkness. A surreal journey of soundscrapes and almost-rhythms, Perforation Bite sweeps and swoops into tortured wormholes of previously-unheard sonic worlds.

Like a technotrance track broken down into molecular bits, Silicon Phantom spews a wavering flood of disjointed blits and warbling waves. The reverberous metallic drumming ofTabernacle Mirror buries the remnants of some liturgical chant with misshapen soundflows. Between tribalized beats and rhythmicated glitchery, formerly human voices echo in the Theatre of the Uninhibited.

13 (de)Constructed Ghosts emanate from the aura-seeing audiovisions of vox barbara. Packaged in a plastic-origami sleeve, these "Kirlian" soundscenes tend to be rough, enigmatic re-recordings of once-familiar events; now transformed into 8.2-rated psychoacoustic experiments which should appeal to altered-reality fans and other more-adventurous listeners.

The (de)Constructed Ghosts website will reveal further details.

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This review posted January 28, 2001

AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).