Royal, shimmering
drone which constructs vast polar landscapes in one's mind (see cover) -- or, perhaps, limitless, moonlit desert. Robert Horton
(Egghatcher) on gong and computer, Sindre Bjerga (Bjerga/Iversen,
Fibo Trespo) on synths and tapes, and Caren Ohlson on
abstract vocals. Constructed via intercontinental collaboration
between El Cerrito, California and Stavanger, Norway. As always, the
music moves slowly, and reverberates glisteningly to
hypnotic effect. My prior exposure to Bjerga's work is limited
(though his tome-like discography renders just about everyone a
novice), and in Horton's case I'm a complete virgin, but this
tremendous composition is an astute example of all that's positive about
the drone scene. Although Broken Wisdom'ssonic
progression is glacial even by the genre's standards, one can't
dispute the appeal of this momentous forty-minute head-trip, its
dynamics sublimely grandiose, its timbres superb in a charred,
apocalyptic sort of way. And despite being pieced together between
both sides of the Atlantic, this has the cohesion and personality of a
live collaboration.