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The first two tracks on Zone of Cold (61'46") really call attention to themselves. Using the dynamic range across a sustaining chord these pieces each build a unique tension of loudness, then near silence, and abstractly asks the listener to contemplate the depth and complexity of the sounds themselves. Simon Lomax is the composer of this transformational music. Known previous to Zone of Cold for his work as Maitreya, this album manifests all of his previous project's strengths, now under his own name. The listener's enjoyment of Zone of Cold begins and ends with a gloom so brilliantly conveyed by its pace and performance. A time-stopping work of preconceived forms and strategies Lomax succeeds in conjuring the arboreal and fatal illumination of winter light. Digressive sighs of synthesized tones portray an atmosphere of bitter cold as the ten tracks drift aimlessly into new territory - a sprawling coldness its only message. Crystalline notes enshrouded in reverb shimmer on a background of blurred sonic imagery. In places the brooding drama lifts - in an aural montage of venting steam and keening synth lines, while elsewhere the feel is more that of frozen brittleness. Floating on clouds of sound and ideas can take the listener quite far, maybe further still were we asleep while wrestling with Zone of Cold - in the pure interplay of timbre, divorced from form.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 2 May 2013 |
