decimus/hobo sonn: split

In an era where compositional abstract music has been co-opted by studious arrangers obsessed with process, where forbears have been kidnapped by pop stars, and where the noiseniks have all turned to techno beats, this split LP by Decimus (Pat Murano) and Hobo Sonn (Ian Murphy) presents a triumphant return to the frayed and dangerous inner world of outsider sound exploration and reproduction. Both artists have crafted individual soundscapes that reek of the cinematic, while eschewing both pastiche and canonized musical reference points to create a unique inverted cosmos. Presented over two sides of vinyl each suite of music almost perfectly mirrors the other. Where Deciumus uses synthetic devices to create warped, nightmarish representations of organic, everyday sounds (creaky floorboards, a heartbeat, rats squeaking, camera shutters clicking, a taunting feral animal cry), Hobo Sonn places field recordings of actual sounds (foot falls, birds, insects, automobiles) in a dark and drifting world that feels very much like a waking bad dream. If the Decimus side feels like a descent into the end of ones days, then perhaps Hobo Sonn's side is the reality we face once we cross over. Or perhaps it is the other way around. There is not a payoff to be found within these vibrating grooves, instead you are invited from the opening seconds of each side to be a part of a parallel world, one that perhaps lives right around the next darkened corner, or at the periphery of your eyesight. Like real life, the peaks happen subtly, when you are not paying attention, and leave you in a different place than you were when you started. Another deeply personal release from the Kelippah label. Limited to 300 LPs. Jackets silk-screened by Phil Franklin and Christine Shields at Bright Spot Ink.