Conscious Summary – “Father’s Day In The Park” – [Self-released]

abacus   10/16/2013   A Library, Cassette

Sound artist Samur Khouja seems to produce something new and different with every release/performance, dabbling in light ambience, harsh noise, folksy children’s music and all sorts of in betweens. This masterpiece of a cassette incorporates all these styles in the most cohesive and all encompassing fashion. On the title track we find ourselves on an epic interstellar journey, drifting amongst glistening nebulae and gazing out at the endless array of celestial bodies. 35 minute long track that is gentle, ethereal and somewhat eery in recognition of its vastness. On 13 Again we drift into an electrical storm, holding on for dear life as our spacecraft is torn apart piece by piece being sucked into a vacuum, lacerating space-time very…very…slowly… The chaos of disintegrating form assembles itself almost rhythmically before swirling into a desolate void (8:45). For the next 20 minutes we’re drifting through space again, mimicry of journeys past, only something is off; light and life are nowhere to be found. We wander lost for another eternity only to find this reality again crumbling before our eyes very…very…slowly… On the next two shorter tracks we’re seemingly on another voyage but are soon reminded that all reality is lost, never to be found again. Bizarre daymares of rapidly intersecting fantasies and horrors; delicate and playful folk tunes and arachnid tone showers fight ghastly faceless voices with explosions of feedback and then suddenly drift away listlessly. Searing saw blades wake us back to oblivion, or is it some sort of screeching creature? Either way it only serves to lull us back into a deceivingly somber sleep, never to fully wake again. Sweet dreams.