The three lengthy pieces on this album attempt to draw connections between organs of the body with the musical instrument known as the organ. The first track (“Somniloquy (an egg): A Choreography of Emancipation”) features recordings of Crouch playing a broken church organ, and it has such a strange crushed decaying sound to it. There’s also distant birds, conversation, and even other music faintly playing in the background, underneath the organ drone landscape and the crunching, deconstructing sound of the broken organ. It swells up towards the end, and as it fades away, there’s some sort of distant clapping rhythm. “The eyes of fire, the nostrils of air, the mouth of water, the beard of earth.” is nearly a half hour long, and has a tense throbbing rumble throughout its first part, but this gradually clears out to more glacial, soothing drones, which are still in the distance buried amongst field recordings. “The Propaganda of History” is much shorter at only 10 minutes, and is built around an oblong loop of fireworks exploding, giving it another odd rhythm. This one also swells up with organ droning, becoming immersive and expansive.
– The Answer is in the Beat
Review
The Answer is in the Beat
August 5, 2015