Arcata, California-based ambient producer Robert Ziino is certainly a creatively prolific guy, having released albums at a rate of one a year since the 2004 release of his debut offering “Twilight Clones’, all through his own Experimental Artists label. This fourth album “Eclipse Unmasked’ comes dedicated to Ziino’s late father, who passed away last year and is described by the artist as being “music from another planet.’ I’m certainly not going to argue with the above description, given the fact that “Eclipse Unmasked’ has easily been one of the most peculiar and difficult listening experiences I’ve had in my CD player for some time.
Opening track “Co-Dependance’ slowly fades in with a wash of what sounds like atonal synthesised horn tones, before haphazard buzzing analogue synths begin to monotonously blare in the background – the overall effect is disturbingly similar to an infant being left in a room to hammer away on two different preset keyboard sounds with the tape running. Just when you’re about to hit the “skip’ button, all of the sound inexplicably drops out altogether, and you’re left with two minutes of positively masturbatory ring modulation that serves absolutely no purpose, just before everything escalates into searing white noise screams and those godawful buzzing synths. After this initial assault, the title track at least represents a moment of respite, threading beeping tones that call to mind satellite signals through dense layers of delay, but it’s stymied by the fact that though it builds intriguing atmosphere, it doesn’t really develop or go anywhere.
“Loon Chamber’ certainly lives up to its title, with irritating buzzing tones that sound like the monotonous chatter of insane aliens providing a backdrop for chaotic synths that sound like they’re being played by someone in the grip of a grand mal seizure, while “Birth 2′ sees Ziino going for broke and throwing all of the previously mentioned elements into the stew at once, bleeping satellite tones, blaring synth-horns and atonal keyboards, the sense creeping through that he’ perhaps already run out of ideas at this point. I found “Eclipse Unmasked’ to be a somewhat bewildering album; while it’s ostensibly pushed as being an ambient album, the eight tracks here show Ziino consistently pushing the listener’s patience threshold with sonic elements so monotonous, atonal and jarring that it borders on perverse. Either Robert Ziino’s having a great laugh at all the ambient heads leaping from their bean bags, or his idea of “cosmic’ listening is very different from mine.
Chris Downton
