Limbus + Morpheum by BABEL

LIMBUS

"The representation of tree life cycles is mostly very dark here, with sludge metal signifiers – in the beginning, very repetitive chord progressions with layers of distorted and bowed guitar, and various heavily reverbed percussion interjections ... One interpretation here is that the dark, brooding music is somehow a representation of what a tree “sees” in its lifetime, i.e. human activity. As the sections pace onward, the suite seems to get more organized somehow, as if the tree is gathering wisdom or looking more and more forward to the next part of its life cycle. Or that the entrance of piano actually occurs after the tree’s death, and the brighter sections represent its decay or afterlife, as it were – which would be an interesting commentary on life and death per se. Either way, the sparseness of the final section (XIII) is an unmistakable hint at ultimate nothingness. As with all Arachnidiscs releases, rendered and packaged with extraordinary devotion and craft."

MORPHEUM

"Babel ... uses multiple instruments and tracks to approximate an unusual avant-jazz/chamber music ensemble (minus most of the instrumentation that I would normally associate with either genre). Part of Rehlinger’s distinctiveness is certainly due to his prominent use of atypical instrumentation (like metal bowls and woodblocks), but his aberrence runs pretty deep stylistically too, as he seems to draw inspiration equally from brooding post-rock, classical minimalism, Harold Budd (particularly his love of heavily reverb-ed piano), and probably even Martin Denny-style exotica (at least on the very tom-heavy “11:03:11”). The four-part title track takes up the bulk of the side and sticks mostly to delicately melancholy piano motifs, but the many curious and sudden dynamic shifts and detours make Morpheum feel more like the soundtrack to a film than a stand-alone suite. I think it’d be a pretty compelling film though."

~ Both reviews, Foxy Digitalis

1999-2017. Percussive ambience, electro-acoustics, and extended technique guitar drones by Jakob Rehlinger.