Previously David Fyans worked as Erstlaub and as such had a release on Moving Furniture before (Vital Weekly 685) but also on labels as Highpoint Lowlife, Broken20 and ConV, and now returns with another release on what slowly becomes the most important Dutch label for all things experimental and drone music, Moving Furniture Records. “Trübhand”, which according to the label means something as Cloudy or Turbid hand, was recorded in February 2016 when Fyans and his wife were “living in north Germany in exile at the time as a result of untenable UK visa policy”, and the flat land he found there made him more homesick and isolated.
There are two pieces here, each lasts exactly twenty-three minutes and they were recorded “using a small case of eurorack modules, a mixer and a couple of guitar pedals as two separate live performances to a zoom H4 recorder”.
Both of these pieces are very minimal when it comes to development and very strong on the drone front. Both of these pieces are structured the same way: fade in, stay on that volume is arrives at, all sorts of minimal developments going in a slow course, over time and fade out at the end. That’s how these things work and that’s not very likely to change easily; it’s also not really a problem.
Fyans music is quite dark and highly atmospheric, two things that perhaps also aren’t in for a total change. There is something about this release that I really like, but somehow don’t know what it is. Perhaps it is that somewhat sinister ring some of this has, a particular spooky character, that nocturnal flat land feel in which a stale cold wind blows? I am not sure, but I thought both pieces sounded truly fascinating.
I realize that a lot of drone music sound very similar and maybe that is the whole point, this one surely sounded a bit different and so much more I liked it.
Review by Frans de Waard
Read the original review here: http://vitalweekly.net/1076.html