[andrea marutti, discography]
a.a.v.v.: record of shadows infinite

Track List:

1.  RUHR HUNTER - In Memory With Blackest Wings I Fly  6:26

2.  TROUM - Uswena  5:24

3.  UNEARTHLY TRANCE - Scarlet  5:22

4.  THUJA - Cave Floor  9:20

5.  HOUSE OF LOW CULTURE - A.T. Drone Home  6:42

6.  SCOTT JENERIK - Of a Dead God  7:43

7.  AMON - Drone / Evidence / Foundation  8:12

8.  CHAOS AS SHELTER - Nihil  5:09

9.  BENEATH THE LAKE - Hong Kong  6:19

10.  FRANCISCO LOPEZ - Untitled #133  6:45

A diverse collection of contemporary neo-minimalism and cinematic audio experimentation, "Record of Shadows Infinite" brings together eerie twilight drones, harrowing field-recordings, intoxicating soundscapes and hazy psychedelic ambience from across the globe.

"The drone surrounds us at all times, infinite shadows coursing thru our being at a sub-atomic level. The eternal hum reverberates in the turning of planets drifting through millennia, and in the blood rush and heartbeat of the smallest organism. It is sung by choirs of electric angels rippling out of the dephts of speaker cones, and its glory is praised in the deafening summer chant of the cicada. The drone has existed since the birth of time, and is the unheard song of existenxce.

Throughout civilization, the drone has been harnessed by the most spiritual of human expression. One can easily recognize it in all songs of worship, regardless of faith, culture or ideology. All other musical forms spring forth from its fertile source, yet the concept of formal Minimalism and drone-music as we know it was not formed in consciousness of Western art until the 1950's. Heralded by the mind expanding roar and extended-time performances of the Theatre of Eternal Music, as well as contemporaries Philip Glass, Charlemagne Palestine and Terry Riley, the minimalist aesthetic, in hindsight, was less a new movement of sound art and invention, as it was an appropriation / reinvention of trance music that has existed in the aforementioned tribal forms and cultures for thousands of years. Sice this dynamic period of sonic discovery, however, minimalism and drone-music became a starting point for energetic explorations into the nature and power of sound. In the following decades, formal simplicity and linear process were gradually ignored while the concept mutated into exciting new equations. By the late 60's, minimalist aesthetics began fusing with the propulsive force of rock with The Velvet Underground, and Rhys Chatham's concussive work in the 70's and 80's (beautifully displayed on his 1987 release, Die Donnergotter) laid the groundwork for an intensely eclectic, genre-erasing environment that one can trace to such artists as Sonic Youth and Earth. And as electronic music evolved in the latter half of the 20th century, the drone could be found as a focal point in everything from neo-classical composition to cinematic soundtrack work. The fundamentals of the drone and its influence on contemporary art and music has been sweeping to say the least.

As Western hyperculture continues to swell and bloat, the life-affirming pulse of the drone continues to become a celebration of sound as psysical force. Extended sound forms can be heard in the everyday, mundane chatter of industrial machinery and kitchen appliances, in the hum of CPU fans and air conditioners, and in the ancient whisper of woodlands and tide. All the while, our dreaming consciousness floats in a drift of peripheral noise.

This is a document of continued explorations within the shadows of sound. These artists, attuned to both the silent roar of the natural world and the deafening power of amplified electricity, create new mutations of the drone and in the process unearth a deep emotional and physical response in the listener through varying degrees of repetition, melody and volume."*

* From "Record of Shadows Infinite" liner notes, Crucial Blast 2003