Beyond Sensory Experience - Urmula
The history of Beyond Sensory Experience goes back to 2001 and several long conversations over alcohol between Drakhon (of MZ 412 fame) and Uppsala based scientist/artist K. Meizter. Music, they decided, was inexorably connected to numbers and existence, and one should be able to explore all three simultaneously. The music of Beyond Sensory Experience is meant to be absorbed and considered by the rational mind in an effort to come to some scientific understanding of the world. Urmula is the middle act of a trilogy of works designed to enlighten the mind through deep, personal consideration.
Filled with the ebb and flow of cosmic winds, a recording of the ocean hitting a rocky coast and spectral voices, "28.9.11.9" is like a numbers station transmission passed through a nature conservatory's promotional video of endangered coastal habitats. "A New Kind of Science" begins with a count -- an intoned "1, 2, 3, 4" -- before dissolving into an exploration of dark caverns where the sound gets caught on the protruding edges of the cave walls. "Celestial Disharmonies" is a play on Pythagoras' music of the spheres idea and, while filled with sonorous harmonies, contains a sizzling vein of arcing current running beneath the intense female voice which speaks insistently during the track.
Urmula is a record which is probably best suited for headphones. You need to be able to blot out your environments and dive deep into the slumbering realm of the music. Your conscious mind needs to have the distractions stripped away so that you can concentrate on the whispered alchemy of the music. "The Two-Trace Problem" is a duet between a cello and a brushed gong, filled with long tones -- low-end drones of string and struck metal. "Filth Discipline" reminds me of a Darrin Verhagen track, part of his work from The Witch Hammer, a cinematic perambulation through the nocturnal hours. "Urmula" is the only track which actually has beats as a solitary drum kit paces through the emptiness behind the groaning wind that tracks through the sonic space, hauling in its wake a twisted bell tree.
Urmula is a dark ambient headspace for those times when you want to sink into the isolation tank for a night of quiet reflection. "Take the earth as it is," says the liner notes, "examine its different parts with minuteness and, by induction, judge the future from what at present exists." Drakhon and K. Meizter are creating scientific mysticism with their work as Beyond Sensory Experience. The only thing you need to join them is a good pair of ears. Nicely done.
Beyond Sensory Experience
Old Europa Cafe [2003]
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