[reviews] afe098lcd
pholde: aperture of the internal surface

Pholde is the dark ambient project of Alan Bloor, a sound artist who is also better known for his project Knurl. The two tracks on "Aperture of the Internal Surface", his first release on the well-known Afe Records, clock in at over thirty minutes and fourteen minutes, respectively.

What is interesting is that both were done in single sessions, with no overdub. Only Bloor's metal sound sculptures were used as source material, with reverb and some EQ to round out the sound.

The album's self-titled opening track is over thirty one minutes long. Waves of sound are built up, almost to a crescendo at times, and then slowly calm themselves down. The sound is metallic, with one layer of sound very sharp as the background is more deep and round.

After about thirteen minutes, the opening sounds stop, and you hear a slow, rattle-like sound, with some metallic 'pings' showing up frequently. And then, over time, a heavily reverbed scraping comes to the forefront of the piece. The different waves of sound all come together in the end to create what has been described as a 'stainless-steel symphony.'

The second track on the album, "Manifested By the Occurrence", is short by comparison to the first, clocking in at 'only' fourteen minutes. The first thing I thought of when I listened to this piece was an old, run down factory that had suddenly come alive, with the clangs, scrapes, and ghostly screams of ancient metallic limbs reverberating within the walls of the building.

This entire album conveys a sense of power, and Bloor's ability to create amazing sounds out of simple objects makes it so I can listen to this forty-five minute album and not be bored by a second of it. Bloor is a metallic maestro, and this album is a fantastic example of his work. (9/10)

[Ormr]