(Indie/Post-Rock/Shoegaze/Ambient) Aarktica - Дискография (2000-2010), MP3, (192-320 kbps)

Debut album of Jon DeRosa's ambient guitar drone project Aarktica. A continuation of the sounds started by Ligetti and followed through by Glenn Branca, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Lycia, Mogwai, lovesliescrushing, and Flying Saucer Attack

Данный альбом Йона Деросы (Jon DeRosa), стоящего в главе одного из своих многочисленных проектов, вышел на лейбле Darla Records в рамках серии сборников компании «Bliss Out». На этот раз в деле сотворения музыки музыканту помогают вокалистка dream-pop-команды «Mahogany» Lorraine Lelis и DJ Aaron Spectre, вспахивающий ниву IDM. Работа, прежде всего, интересна своим странным, но притягательным звучанием и настроением, которое оно создает. Все композиции — а их всего 7 — являются весьма простыми произведениями, звуковые составляющие в которых не превышают четырех-пяти дорожек. Основным связующим звеном же между ними является постоянный эксперимент со звуком — преобразования его при помощи эффектов, эхо и ревербераций. В частности, DeRosa очень сочно и выразительно коверкает свой вокал — так, что подчас и не поймешь, где, собственно, вкрался семпл, а где буква. По духу работу, скорее, можно отнести к меланхоличному ambient, вызывающему непонятный приступ прохладной ностальгии, однако и любимые композитором прозрачные гитарные риффы также присутствуют в должном наличии. Напоминая о том, что здесь мы имеем честь слышать некий вариант рок-музыки будущего, а может, уже и настоящего.

Третий альбом одного из многочисленных проектов американского музыканта по имени Jon DeRosa - ученика, между прочим, К. Штокгаузена. Более всего на формирование Aarktica повлияли релизы и звук эмбиент-готического лейбла Projekt, однако данная работа вышел в компании Silber Records, занимающейся изданием "качественной, уникальной" с их позиций музыки. К участию в работе Дероза привлек своих бывших коллег по рок- и панк-рок командам, например, здесь были Ernie Adzentovich, басист Plexus, виолончелист Andrew Prinz и вокалистка Lorraine Lelis из Mahogany. ДеРоза и сам поет в нескольких композициях - полусиплым шепотом, который настолько сильно соответствует стилевому звучанию, что, насколько я понимаю, не нуждается в доп. обработке. "Однотонная аудиометрия" - альбом, стоящий на грани гитарной рок-музыки и экспериментальной электроники, весьма контрастный, но в то же время и очень спокойный, даже завораживающий, гипнотический. Перебирание гитарных струн здесь соседствует с осторожными шорохами и шумами, психоделическими звуковыми атмосферами. Это обязательно нужно слушать в отрыве от окружающей обстановки - ведь только таким образом простая музыка поддается пониманию. Любопытный факт: на момент записи альбома музыкант абсолютно и окончательно оглох на правое ухо. Но я бы не сказал, что сей факт каким-то образом повлял на пространственную сторону его произведений. Хотя, возможно, стереополя простираются не очень широко, в этом есть своя прелесть.

Darla is proud to offer the fifth new record from Aarktica, the pop/rock/experimental group lead by New York’s Jon DeRosa featuring Mascott’s Kendall Meade and Drum Corps’ Aaron Spectre as well as other musicians known for their own work. As with previous records Matchless Years was recorded by Charles Newman at Mother West Studio, NYC. On Matchless Years Aarktica embraces the spirit of the best works of brethren Jesus And Mary Chain, Spiritualized, and Magnetic Fields, as well as a progression toward "dark disco" and a meshing of 1950's vocal pop sensibilities atop Aarktica's established atmospheric sound. The tradition of moody pop aural heroin has never sounded so comfortable. Matchless Years is by far Aarktica’s strongest and most accessible work to date and is sure to gain them new fans.

Aarktica’s songs are extended reveries, built on loops of guitars & drums & occasional voices. The musical elements hover & circle, float by or bristle with distortion as the songs drift through serenity & trouble.” ~ Jon Pareles, The New York Times
In Sea is Jon DeRosa’s sixth-full length release as Aarktica & a return to the sound Aarktica has been famous for since its debut No Solace In Sleep in 2000. The story of NSIS is mythic. In the winter of 1999, after learning of his permanent & near-total hearing loss in his right ear caused by nerve damage, DeRosa struggled through auditory hallucinations & an addiction to painkillers to recreate sound as he suddenly began to hear it, akin to being underwater or “in sea.” Disoriented by the cacophony of New York City & self- conscious about his deafness, DeRosa withdrew & began writing the songs that would become NSIS. These were sparse guitar compositions recorded quietly in an NYU dorm room on a dying warbly 4-track recorder. While some were as serene as an ice floe passing in the blackest night, others sounded as turbulent & terrifying as a drowning. What followed was the Morning One EP on Ochre Records in 2001 & then several years of releases where DeRosa veered away from his modern ambient/drone guitar orches- trations & towards atmospheric-pop & shoegaze with a number of guest musicians adding strings, horns, & vocals on top of his guitar work. While beautiful & unique, these albums are filled with pensive, paranoid, & often disjointed work that mirrored his frenetic mind during these turbulent & drug-addled points in his life.
While In Sea’s title is a nod to Terry Riley’s landmark minimal composition “In C,” DeRosa also pays tribute to his teachers La Monte Young & Marian Zazeela (“LYMZ”), with whom DeRosa studied composition & Indian classical vocal music during the difficult years following his sudden deafness. He credits Young & Zazeela with teaching him how to hear without ears, relying on the physical vibrations of his instrument & his vocal chords. This ability allows him to create more detailed & nuanced guitar structures than most could make even with full use of their ears.
In 2007, DeRosa moved from New York to California to break the spiral of artistic decay he felt himself falling into. Just one year later he returned to Brooklyn to reclaim his identity & begin work on In Sea, the album that had haunted his head for years. DeRosa approached these recordings just as he did 10 years ago while making NSIS, simply trying to capture the sounds his hearing loss offers up uniquely to him. Only this time, he would opt for a studio environment to record the majority of In Sea, as opposed to a dying 4-track in an NYU dorm. While there are some vocals & traditional song structures on In Sea (something largely absent on NSIS) there are no guests, no producers, no electronics – no instruments aside from guitars & DeRosa’s antique Bilhorn Telescopic Pump Organ, once used for traveling church revivals & home funeral services in the 1930s.
In Sea’s parallels to NSIS are apparent on the opening opus “I Am (The Ice),” a majestic dirge reclaiming Aarktica’s reputation as a master of chilling, glacial guitar symphonies. Two pieces, “A Plague of Frost (In The Guise Of Diamonds)” & “Corpse Reviver No. 2,” were recorded exactly like NSIS’s opening track “Glacia” – double-speed 4-track cassette recordings played back in regular speed mono. The darker, more rhythmic “Instill” meshes post-punk bass & guitar lines in repetition, falling into cathartic bursts of distortion, while tracks like “Onward!,” “When We’re Ghosts” & “Young Light” convey a youthful optimism absent from most of Aarktica’s catalog. “Autumnal” rides along on layers of lush & layered picked guitars, almost hymnal in tone, while “In Sea” simmers like an oceanic storm, with the sky opening up to reveal both rain & bright sunlight. On “Hollow Earth Theory,” one of the two vocal tracks on the album, DeRosa hopes against hope that Inner Earth truly does exist, searching ancient maps for an escape & an entrance, stating “We will wait & we will see, if it’s right to put our faith all in this hollow earth theory.”
The album ends with Aarktica’s cover of Danzig’s “Am I Demon?” turning the blues-metal classic into one of deadpan dark, atmospheric intimacy & self-realization with organs & reverse guitar loops that imply an unholy exorcism. DeRosa’s exorcism perhaps? We hope so. After all, it sounds like the man has finally conquered his demons. After years of creating fractured pop songs for perfect ears, DeRosa has finally reconciled with the way he hears sounds, letting the rest of the world in on his otherworldly auditory hallucinations.