Greek dark ambient / drone producer Giannis Kotsonis has previously released tracks as Sister Overdrive on netlabels including Post-Digital and Memoryformat, but this debut release on Low Impedance represents his first longplayer and collects together two extensive pieces, each respectively titled ‘Annick’ and ‘Philomela’ and split up over five tracks on the disc. Both pieces see Kotsonis working with metallic noise, effects pedals and treated field recordings to create a dark, immersive sense of atmosphere that’s frequently equally as lulling as it is menacing. ‘Annick’ comprises the first half of this disc and spends five tracks gradually shifting from an opaque wash of gentle harmonic tones and distant, grinding textures into a serene landscape of drones, crackling static and the subtle whisper of field recorded crickets. Two parts in, the dreamlike sense of optimism starts to dissolve away slightly, replaced by clicking digital detritus, Oval-esque electrical pops and icily trailing melodic notes as buzzing distorted feedback begans to rise up into the centre of the mix and rattled objects crash back and forth amidst the distant wash of field-recorded traffic sounds. While the descent towards noise is curtailed just as it starts to reach punishing levels, the remainder of ‘Annick’s running time tends towards cold isolationism, with the distant relentless hum of what sounds like a generator providing a dark undertone to the icy synth tones and distressed electronic textures that float above, the entire fusion calling to mind some mid-point between Lustmord’s ominous darkness and Murcof’s click and pop-strewn crawl.
By contrast, ‘Philomela’, originally composed in 2006 for a theatre performance of Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses VI’ opens on a more percussive tangent with rattling treated rhythmic elements sliding back and forth between the speakers before wandering out into frigid-sounding minor-key drones, the unsettling atmosphere suddenly being ripped apart by the sudden pops of static and echoing metallic crashes that abruptly appear without warning. From there, there’s a slide down into dramatic film-score esque territory as brooding orchestral strings lead the way out through a forest of weirdly phased and pitch-shifted melodics that slowly strip themselves away one by one, leaving only shimmering, polar-sounding drones intact as the piece fades to its conclusion. In this case, Kotsonis has succeeded in crafting two lengthy pieces that are equally as mesmerising as they are unsettling, making ‘Annick / Philomela’ well worth checking out for fans of dark ambience along the lines of Dead Voices On Air and Thomas Koner. I also can’t sign off before mentioning both the gorgeous sleeve art and characteristically excellent mastering job by James Plotkin, both of which cap off an already classy package.
Chris Downton
