Monstrare/Wilt: Graveflowers
For most labels, split albums are merely a more secure way of pushing a record: Bundle several succesful projects on a disc and thereby assure yourself that you have more than just one fan base to fall back on. It is only after some remarkable releases that this format has in fact gained a meaning of its own and managed to offer something most regular releases can not: Diversity and a richness in creative ideas that extends beyond a single concept. "Graveflowers" represents one of those rare cases that both contributing artists have pushed the album higher than the sum of its individual components.
Of course, both Cordell Klier (Monstrare) and James Keeler (Wilt) are no newcomers to the scene, sharing a rich experience and extensive discographies. Klier's work especially has been hard to follow, as he has operated in an almost anonymous realm, releasing next to nothing about his real life persona, running his doctsect label as an underground operation and spreading his compositions like a virus. Over the years, he has been active in the fields of noise and microtonal music, sometimes scraping more general contemporary developments such as glitch and clicks and cuts. The six tracks he delivers here are of a harsher and more in your face character than his two unique solo works on "Ad Noiseam", yet they contain all of the different poles of his work: Grating manipulations over majestic cymbal drones, the roars of faceless beasts underneath reverbed sound splinters, static thunderstorms, rattling rhythmic maschineries and frantic collages – the world of monstrare is bleak, desolate, frightening and destitute, but it is also full of wonders. Keeler, meanwhile, enjoys deeping and staying within a single mood and his pieces are consequently longer and slightly more monochromatic. When looked at in their entirety, though, he has an equal talent of playing with the building blocks of styles such as Dark Ambient and turn them into idiosyncratic landscapes. The hollow structures of "From the Museum of Sleep" and the melancholic strings lamenting their certain demise in "When we had skin" are still conform to the rules of the genre, but on other occasions Wilt breaks the structures wide open with sudden erruptions of energy and anger or an almost tender finale.
If "Graveflowers" could well have been written by a single person, than this impression probably results from the fact that both artists have shared their pool of source material with the other, allowing themselves to be inspired by different trains of thought and ensuring a certain coherence and closeness. What looked like a risk at the outset, with both projects giving away a bit of their own profile to take on traits of his colleague, has ended up being a record which will not only please both fan blocks, but many others as well. A radical, relentless but rewarding effort.
www.tokafi.com
By Tobias Fischer
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Elegy Magazine (France)
French to English translation thanks to: Nicolas Chevreux
"For his 4th album, Wilt has decided to broaden their electronic
experimentations by adding to them a big dosis of pure noise and
accoustic gutiar, which makes Wilt's menacing tracks a tad more humane.
Dark Meadows is still not a happy album, as the raven and burnt out
landscape on the cover might confirm. We are not hear to have a laugh,
but to take our time and listen carefully to this instrumental palette
of dark ambient and noise full of nice sonic finds. James Keeler has a
background as a painter and sculptor, and is unequaled when it comes to
brushing atmospheres full of eloquance, and here of tortured sounds"
-Elegy #45
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www.heathenharvest.com
A Wilt release has never featured on Heathen Harvest before. Well I couldn't find one anywhere. Even with the review section being hugely improved and updated. This is a big surprise because if anyone fits in with the type of music and artist that Heathen Harvest is trying to promote then Wilt fits that profile perfectly. Not only that but 'Dark Meadows' is the 31st release to date put out by James P Keeler under many different formats and different record labels. Although it has to be stated that he's joined here by Dan Hall whose been an accomplice of his over the last few releases. I have eight Wilt releases, nine including this one, in my collection so can sort of call myself a quarter of a fan. 25% of something is better than 100% of nothing in my view. I would have loved, strong emotional word but applicable here, to have had everything Wilt has ever released sitting pretty in my home. You can't have everything you wish for. Even an old codger like me realises that by now. Enjoy the moment with what you've already got. Which is exactly what I'm doing now.
Those of you who haven't heard the Wilt sound for a long, long time will be pleasantly shocked / surprised, delete as applicable, in this direction the music is currently taking. Gone are the all out electronic noisier elements usually associated by the earlier work. Instead these have been replaced by a more experimental sound sculpture structure that borders on dark ambience and acoustic noise with nods in the direction of drone and the psychedelic nature of things. Great wording that. The psychedelic nature of things. Listening intently to 'Dark Meadows' is a kaleidoscopic colourful experience. The artists have utilised the sounds created by guitars, various electronic devices, mucked around voices and taped captured sounds to bring a seminal spatial ambience into being. From the sub bass rumblings that bleeds outward to the sonic disharmony, deconstruction and distortion that accompanies most pieces this is the birth of a new life force. The immense and threatening blackness that is all prevalent is countered by shards of opulent blinding radiance which is quickly sealed over as the music progresses. Each of the ten pieces of music offering a slightly different variety on this theme. The end results are startlingly original and diverse. The sounds dragging you into a private world of, almost, organic free flowing matter.
Don't be put off by my words. 'Dark Meadows' is a strange beast when heard for the first time. The melodic touches that occur seemingly at odds with the electronic malaise. Although it doesn't topple 'Radio 1940' as my favourite Wilt release it comes damn close. That though is only a personal opinion and one that can be discarded as you see fit. The soundscapes created on 'Dark Meadows' have to be heard to be believed. Hopefully, just this once perhaps, someone will actually act on my recommendation and go out and get this for themselves. We'll see. Wilt deserve your recognition and admiration for their skilful sonic manipulations. This release proves that without a shadow of doubt. - Alan Milne
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www.textura.org
Keep the razor blades locked away while listening to Wilt's fourth full-length Dark Meadows. It's an uncompromisingly disturbing, often harrowing work created by Wilt founder James Keeler and new addition guitarist Dan Hall. That Wilt is now a band, even if a small one, is significant since Hall's acoustic textures strengthen the humanizing dimension of the group's otherwise electronic sound and encourage a looser and more explorative compositional approach (in "Harmonic Convergence," his acoustic playing suggests some trace of life remains amidst the muffled clanking and bird noises). Yet despite the presence of lulling acoustic strums, the predominantly gloomy Dark Meadows approximates a psychedelic and disorienting soundtrack for that final journey to Hades.
Guitars shudder and bells echo over barren landscapes while rusted factory machinery churns and squeals mercilessly in these hellish nightscapes. "When the Earth Swallows Us Whole" grotesquely lurches like a corpse being dragged towards its open grave; its horror-film organ chords are straight out of The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and the piece eventually seems to become gripped by a seizure as its chords merge into an indistinguishable mass. The seething "For Blake" sounds like bird cawing amplified to a shrill, ear-splitting pitch while "Keeper of Lanterns" drifts through the graveyard at 3 am checking to make sure nothing has escaped from its crypt. The zenith is reached in the hellish soundscape "The Devil's Rainbow" where distorted squeals tear across your eardrums like fingernails on a blackboard. Though a far from conventionally 'pleasant' listen, Dark Meadows is without question an incredible and immersive experience. Wilt's music is so wholly nocturnal in spirit, one suspects that, like Nosferatu, it might wither and die if exposed to sunlight.
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Dark Meadows -
The sound of a twilight desert given voice, Wilt's 'Dark Meadows' is a record that aims squarely for the likes of Sunn O))), Earth and Wolf Eyes - with a slew of textured atmospherics crumbled into the noir psychedelics and encroaching sonic dusk. Frayed with an pungent sense of encroaching threat that doesn't feel the need to rely on cheap theatrics, the likes of 'Amerikan Zombie', 'For Blake' and 'Moonchild' posses an almost literary perspective - with squalls of guitar, humming electronics and field recordings all running together to form a coarse yet detailed tableaux. Somber but surprisingly uplifting, the inclusion of tender acoustic guitar on 'Harmonic Convergence' and 'Forever End Credits' lend a definite pin-prick of light to the album that suggests heavy velvet curtains being parted to reveal a pink sunset on the horizon.
- Boomkat.com
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Dark Meadows
An icy wind howls over the dark and desolated massive of deeply textured bass. Obstructive bushes of electro acoustic noises are growing on this wide and dusty field. Wilt is founded by James Keeler who tries to replicate his paintings and sculptures into sound. And the sounds of "Dark Meadows" are of organic darkness. This is not an Ambient CD with just wide layered drones but here is something happening. Together with guitar player Dan Hall he shifts from a studio project into a band jamming out dark walls of sound and noise. Now Keeler is not alone anymore, the contact microphones have learned to let room for the guitar which has a profound role. The guitar is not only used as a string instrument but also as a percussion instrument, Dan is not only playing loops or loose notes but you hear him also knocking on the body and the neck. Reverb and delay on the guitar give warmth to the sound while Keeler is creating ice cold and alien landscapes. The music shows an open and very transparent sound and has many dimensions from experimental to harmonious. "Dark Meadows" displays a psychedelic approach to its deeply textured ambiances, often quite abstract but with an acute sense of melody.
As I said, this is not just another ambient album and it definitively is not an easy album. It will take time to hear the value of this very interesting recording.
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