HR081 - Violence & The Sacred - Lost Horizons (Part One) - C60 — 1988
REVIEW by Jerry Kranitz
Violence & the Sacred were a Canadian ensemble. For this performance they were the quartet of St. Deborah on voice; Scott Kerr on synth, beatbox and tapes; Graham Stewart on cello, synth and tapes; and Ted Wheeler on guitar and tapes. The set was recorded live at The Fallout Shelter in Toronto on May 2, 1987. Titled Lost Horizons (Part One), the tape notes say Part 2 of the performance is available from Corrosive Tapes (Belgium), though it was also later released by Harsh Reality as HR157.
The set starts off like the soundtrack to an intensely dreamlike theater production. The cello is put to interesting use, creating a darkly hallucinatory feel, as it winds a series of strangely wavering paths. Similarly, the guitar plays ambient licks, solo runs and bashing chords, adding to the rapidly unfolding theme. Soon the tapes and electronics kick in, adding a freaky spaced out vibe, plus a variety of voices and samples. Throughout the set there are more voice samples from various sources than there are St. Deborah’s spoken word poems (some may be her and I didn’t realize it).
I like how the music and themes continually and seamlessly evolve, and I love the combination of music and tape artistry. Frippertronic styled guitar interweaves with stuttered voice samples, punked out guitar and cello create a corrosively haunting atmosphere against religious discussion samples that melt into drugged blathering, and more. LOTS going on here and it all flows beautifully.
This is an impressively intricate performance that sounds carefully composed, though it could very well be improvised. And the sound quality is really good. Imagine a mixture of The Residents ‘Mark Of The Mole’, Univers Zero, and chamber ensemble, with a free-wheeling experimental, tape samples and electronics aesthetic and you’ll get something like The Violence & The Sacred.
Violence & the Sacred were a Canadian ensemble. For this performance they were the quartet of St. Deborah on voice; Scott Kerr on synth, beatbox and tapes; Graham Stewart on cello, synth and tapes; and Ted Wheeler on guitar and tapes. The set was recorded live at The Fallout Shelter in Toronto on May 2, 1987. Titled Lost Horizons (Part One), the tape notes say Part 2 of the performance is available from Corrosive Tapes (Belgium), though it was also later released by Harsh Reality as HR157.
The set starts off like the soundtrack to an intensely dreamlike theater production. The cello is put to interesting use, creating a darkly hallucinatory feel, as it winds a series of strangely wavering paths. Similarly, the guitar plays ambient licks, solo runs and bashing chords, adding to the rapidly unfolding theme. Soon the tapes and electronics kick in, adding a freaky spaced out vibe, plus a variety of voices and samples. Throughout the set there are more voice samples from various sources than there are St. Deborah’s spoken word poems (some may be her and I didn’t realize it).
I like how the music and themes continually and seamlessly evolve, and I love the combination of music and tape artistry. Frippertronic styled guitar interweaves with stuttered voice samples, punked out guitar and cello create a corrosively haunting atmosphere against religious discussion samples that melt into drugged blathering, and more. LOTS going on here and it all flows beautifully.
This is an impressively intricate performance that sounds carefully composed, though it could very well be improvised. And the sound quality is really good. Imagine a mixture of The Residents ‘Mark Of The Mole’, Univers Zero, and chamber ensemble, with a free-wheeling experimental, tape samples and electronics aesthetic and you’ll get something like The Violence & The Sacred.