How can something be parallel and yet not be aligned? What is the function of the parallel aspect? If two or more objects are disaligned, then they simply can not be parallel. And to make it worse, the editor I use to write my reviews doesn’t even know the word disalignment and wants to change it into misalignment the whole time. Why would you combine these two words that are sort of in juxtaposition with each other, but still manage to explain the paradox of a situation? It’s a tricky situation for some, but for Y’ng-Yin Siew from Malaysia, about whom I’ve written just two weeks ago and Richard Johnson of Fourth Dimension Records, it’s the title of a new release. The second release of Fallen Sun on this exact label, and looking at the other names on the roster, I think a fitting choice for both.
The seven tracks on this album are titles “Session 41” to “Session 47” and all except the last have a maximum playtime of around 5 minutes. “Session 46” has additional field recordings by Peter Wullen (of whom I’ve never heard before), and “Session 47” was a live recording from the event Negative Frequencies Vol . 1 in Kuala Lumpur in April of this year. Having written about Y’ng-Yin Siew so recently, it feels weird to recapture it so soon again. She had one track on a four-way split, and my exact words were: ‘The fourth and final act is Fallen Sun from Malaysia. Behind this project is Y’ng-Yin Siew, who is also active under the names Hexagon Forest and Reverse Image. According to Discogs, she has been musically active for only a few years, but she has been interested in noise music and labels for a long time. Her track “GEOGLYPH 1” is my favorite of this release. Massive noise constructions with a contemplating end. Will have to look into her work a bit more. And as that is the goal of this series, win!’
Now, with this release, I have a speedy opportunity to dive into her work a bit more, and as suspected, she does not disappoint. The seven tracks are noise from the hardest kind. Layers of what people once used to call Jap(a)noise, a word that I don’t think can be used anymore in this day and age, harsh noise, and cut-up techniques create a massive yet well-thought-out surrealistic reality in which you can only grasp for the last straw of hope and a bit of oxygen. It’s fun to hear how she really focuses on the different sessions and, in each session, finds some sound to make a specific modulation, the main thing in the session. In “Session 42”, for example, the silence in between the pulses of noise really brings out the use of the delay, whereas in other tracks – should she use the same delay – it’s more of a part of the sound, instead of a basis for the composition.
Sound-wise wise my favourite was “Session 45” because of everything that is happening in there. It’s the one that, when I played it in the background, I kept on asking, ‘Which number is this?’. The fade at the ending is a bit sad, though; it could have used a little bit more of a ‘story’ altogether. “Session 46” is the only session where there are non-noise sounds added, and it might be me, but the combination of the birds and the noise didn’t do it for me. And finally, that 13-minute live track is just gorgeous in its hectic cut-up noisiness.
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