[reviews] afe008rcd
never known: dawn of an era [black edition]

Milan-based label Afe has released an arsenal of quality music on CD-R over the last few years. "Dawn of an Era" starts with a Kubrickian overture that has lots in common with some of the finest work by Randy Grief’s Nocturnal Emissions.

Never Known (Afe label guru, Andrea Marutti) recorded this disc in 1992 for release on tape, now it has been re-mastered in CD-R format with three additional tracks, clocking in at 70+ minutes.

The percolating ambience of distant airplanes with a continuous drone is ominous in our time, but dually calming and transformative. But something suspicious is lurking. Recalling the film "City of Lost Children", there are dark canals, curious outposts, foreign entities.

This (lucky?) thirteen track disc peaks in grayscale, hundreds of slightly deviant tones and shades. Its quiet in here, but the silence builds a fear factor. Long sweeping drones become white noise, placing the listener in its vacuum, time traveling to ‘the edge of forever’.

[TJ Norris]