Vitriol

For 12 months, Ben Christian Green (of Godflesh) deposited himself within the Cambrian mountains to escape modern civilisation and search within the imposed silence of his surroundings to hear only himself. One would expect that such an absence from the things that are normally part of our everyday lives would produce sensory deprivation. In this case, the result is an auditory overload of the senses that is quite massive in scope, and he manages to capture it all to tape. With the additional aid of philosophic disciplines obtained from studying alchemy, magic and the cabala, Green's "search" also incorporated the use of nature itself as a "processor" of sounds, and eventually sectioned off seven pieces to represent the seven stages of self-realisation. Layers upon layers of sonic energy translated from his surroundings loop, echo and resonate within a variance of pitches and dynamics that extracts a very raw and emotional response from the listener. It spawns impressions that are embryonicly soothing and frightening; two extremes that are necessary in order to understand balance. One completely unfamiliar with recording would assume that only computers could have created these cascades of sounds. Instead, the hyper-realistic yet intense primitive emotions evoked here are channelled through the mind's ear via the use of "primitive" gear - a guitar, an eight-track recorder and two microphones - nothing more. These seven pieces prove that everything must first come from within; isolation knows no technical boundaries.