Pawel Grabowski – The Beautiful Schizophrenic / James Eckrippie & Paulo Raposo – Product (Cronica)

Polish born dark ambient guy Pawel Grabowski begins proceedings on the 6th instalment of excellent experimental Portuguese label Cronica’ Product series of split cds. It’s quite sombre stuff, waves of brooding drones drift across the airwaves for the twenty odd minute piece But I’m not, where he has used radio waves, manipulated field recordings, sine waves, voices and found sounds to deliver a palpable sense of menace. This is followed by The Beautiful Schizophrenic, Portuguese artist Jorge Mantas who creates a mesmirising series of vistas, 10 tracks of laptop processed music concrete, abstract atmospheric creations constructed with field recordings, film samples, female voice even highly processed thrash grind and black metal samples. Finally it’s James Eck Rippies and founder of Sirr records Paulo Raposo who offer the highlight of a remarkable album, a lush drifting piece of gentle hypnosis courtesy of Rippies’ restrained use of turntable and Raposo’ subtle electronics.