ZEN ZSIGO - WINDOWPANE, ACID
strange rules 2017, edition of 50
"1 hour. tape loop ambience & subtle manipulation using unstable home made delays. leave space. for quiet listening." - STRANGE RULES
apparent STRANGE RULES head honcho hailing from hastings, and creative force behind CREMATION LILY's evolving industrial power electronics proliferation -his primary outlet with various parallel side projects and tangential aliases in tow- issues his full length debut (i think) under his own name following a handful of extended players and split cassettes that establish "ZSIGO" as a separate sonic entity that is more textural and decidedly more tilted toward ambient (drone), first piquing my interest last year with NASCENT DAWN [REC #158] which played something like an enticing preamble to the second coming of YELLOW SWANS
STRANGE RULES has been firing on all cylinders since igniting in mid 2011 or so with RULE-001 being CREMATION LILY's debut -which has folks lining up to pay a good chunk of change on discogs- with 128 cataloged entries since then, nearly a third of those comprising the bulk of the CREMATION LILY library, with some loose continuity plotted along NEILS GEYBELS (AUDIO VISUALS ATMOSPHERE main man as heard on the flipside of NASCENT DAWN) aka FALSE MONIKER > IVORY TRADE > CAPRICE & NECESSITY and AUTUMN ARCHIVE, which i'm not sure means a whole lot but i think all the above are mutual "riyls"
except WINDOWPANE doesn't really fit along that curve, like those sore thumb ambient titles from C&N/AA a la LOST AGE's ETERNAL BIRTH OF PRAYER [REC #141] and CATHEDRAL's THE EARTHENWARE HEAD [REC #153], this might seem more at home on CONSTELLATION TATSU or PATIENT SOUNDS or even RECITAL - it seems worlds apart at first glance, even after repeated immersed listens, but appearances can be deceiving - perhaps there is not so much that separates "industrial power electronics" from "tape loop ambience" - case in point, consider fellow sonic shapeshifters GREG GORLEN and GERMAN ARMY's PETER KRIS - another curious common thread is their prolific output -- anyway, i digress
WINDOWPANE, ACID is a deeply alluring exposition of haunting ambient bliss in two half hour movements - "windowpane" and "acid" respectively - one of those rare works that with sufficient close listening seems to open a time portal where all of a sudden it's over and i can't believe an hour went by - ZSIGO is a master of established tape loop and manipulation techniques, right out of the gate, channeling BASINSKI and STARS OF THE LID, deserving placement at the head of the weirdo cassette class alongside OJERUM and SKITTISH ARM
http://www.strangerules.com/
