Ronnie Sundin – The Amateur Hermetic (Komplot)

Swedish born sound artist Ronnie Sundin uncovers the darkness lingering in music concrete in this incredibly evocative and quite troubling 41 minute piece. It seems he’ begun with his own voice, a growling snarling gutteral rumble that begins gently enough, slightly reminiscent of Tuvan throat singing. However as he progresses various bottom end and then some higher frequency electronics attach to his growl, offering more activity and a greater frequency spectrum within which to work. This is overtaken by white noise which then ruptures into thunder, the sound of rain and some very tribal gutteral growls before it begins to build again. It appears that Sundin is attempting to tap into something quite primal here, perhaps some sonic form of the occult. On the liner notes he presents three examples, a former Queen of Sweden who wished to become a man, a poet priest who intended to build an organ aboard a ship to ” seize the roar of god and make heavenly music,’ and an alchemist Count who experimented with consumption of his own excrement. The sounds here are animalistic. It sounds like feeding time at the zoo. Like Sundin is attempting to regress to a savage state to achieve some form of spiritual transformation.