When the promo text includes the words ‘Inspired By Bruce Gilbert, The Conet Project, Nurse With Wound, and Hafler Trio, ‘ our hearts at VW/HQ skip a little beat. There is a good chance that we will get some happy ears while reviewing. For the new album of Testing Vault, ‘I will Climb These Stairs and Set the Moon on Fire, ‘ the honour of listening went to my ears. And happy ears they were! Daniele Santagiuliana hails from Italy, and I had never heard of him or one of his projects before. Which I thought was weird because I followed a bit of the Italian masters over the years. But the artists I learned about were extremism fans, extreme frequencies, and subjects. Daniele experimented with collages, found footage, and the works. He is still painting with sounds – which he also does with normal paint – but the use of paint is completely different.
The six tracks on ‘I Will Climb These Stairs and Set the Moon on Fire’ have a playing time of only 38 minutes, and that is the only sad thing I will write about this release because I wouldn’t have minded if it was closer to an hour. It’s a pressed CD, and it can hold 80 minutes. But perhaps the original thought was that this would be a vinyl release. And in that case, it would have been a perfect fit. Having said what’s on my sleeve, let’s get into the sounds. First, with a little line from Daniele’s Bandcamp: ‘The sounds of entropy, broken instruments, defective radio signals, and a heartfelt invocation to light despite the murky waters you are swimming in’. This is pure poetry and fits the music live a proverbial glove.
‘Adjustments’ opens the CD with slight noise loops, evolving into an excellent drone. “Three Black Years” is the longest track on the album, with 13 minutes. An ambient sound field is created with minimal input and loads of reverb, resulting in a spacious feeling … Well … Maybe this is the ‘murky water’ from the description you read earlier. What’s the English word for ‘unheimlich’? It’s not the literal translation, but the gut feeling that comes with it. Very nice composition. The CD continues with “Perturbed”, which reminded me a lot of Coil (Astral Disaster era) meets The Caretaker (Ballroom era). And you can’t go wrong with me there.
‘I Hear The Sounds Of The Falling Comets’ is something you need to hear yourself, perhaps. ‘Broken instruments’ reflects the best on this track as it’s based around an actual melodic loop. Mesmerizing. The album continues with ‘Epiphany’, the track that puzzled me the most. It’s all over the place and has Krell moments and static noises … Though I simply LOVE it when those pulses are added. ‘Where I Grew Up’ is this beautiful release’s final and most minimal track. Static noise and ever so little movement create a whole different reality. And just when you’ve arrived in that reality, childhood memories and playing in the garden enter your brain. You have been sonically hypnotized.
This is the first review I write where one word will suffice to summarize it: ‘Wow’.
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