bruce gilbert: ex nihilo

Editions Mego's 250th release continues its ongoing legacy of cross-pollinating and perverting various threads of radical 20th century music whilst concocting and propelling further ideas into the nebulous region where we all currently reside. With Ex Nihilo, Editions Mego resumes its enduring relationship with long-term collaborator and stalwart representative of the label's aesthetic with a new release from London's most charming deviant occupant, Bruce Gilbert (formerly of Wire, Dome, etc.) Gilbert's peculiar approach to sound over four decades has seen him engage with a wide variety of practice and performance always hovering amongst the grey area between his mind and the surrounding architecture. Ex Nihilo is another significant entry into Gilbert's outer sound-book. Inhabiting a murky zone between interference and trauma, Ex Nihilo is a daring and dark audio ride through a contemporary ketamine haze, one which haunts identifiable parameters whilst remaining too oblique to be truly quantified. "Change And Not" teases discomfort, "Black Mirrors" embraces disorder, "Nomad" skirts the unsettling. Whilst never quite resolving its own logic, Ex Nihilo invites the casual listener to privy a devastating peculiar and somewhat paranoid fantasy (reality?). Another effortless Gilbert classic. Design: David Coppenhall; front image/concept: Bruce Gilbert. Mastered by Russell Haswell. Cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates and Mastering, Berlin.