THING

With this thirteenth edition, attenuation circuit continues its series of four-way split albums called THING. The aim is to provide a medium for exchange and presentation of a great variety of artists. As each artist spreads the copies to their network, listeners also get to know the other artists featured on the same disc. The title references the fact that the CDs are physical objects – things! – but also refers to the 'thing' or 'ding' in old Norse and other Germanic languages, which designates the place of a popular assembly or the assembly itself and thus alludes to the 'meeting-place' character of the albums on (or around) which the four artists and their audiences meet, if only virtually.

This edition of THING is a trip into dark sonic regions. The cinematic, doom-laden, quasi orchestral sound of Exogeny from Oregon sets the mood for what is to come. Graneg Sandpapier from Cologne continues the walls of gloomy chords, but supplements them with metallic, percussive sounds, like pieces of industrial debris rattled by the wind, banging against the sooty bricks of an abandoned factory. (Post-) industrial is a word that also comes to mind when trying to describe the third piece, the most rhythmic on the album, by Foltergeist - which feels as if the machinery once housed in the abandoned factories was coming back as a psychedelic ghost. The closing track by RinniR masterfully unites the strands of mournful drone and feisty noise that create the exciting tension that runs through this whole album by confronting them full on to great effect.

File under: dark ambient, drone, noise