Wilhelm Reich used to hypothesize about the interrelation of energy, life forms and the universe at large. Kreiselwelle – final chapter of a trilogy, Ozeanische Gefühle and Cosmic Superimposition being the preceding instalments – is Irr. App. (Ext.)’s imaginative portrayal of what Reich defined as “spiral wave” (that’s the album’s title in English), a recurring shape that the psychologist had observed in several systems, not necessarily restricting his analysis to biotic issues.
The improvement of consciousness via abnormal sonorities is an aim that many composers have tried to achieve, with mixed results. Matt Waldron excels in the creation of extremely affecting soundscapes based on the concurrence and the management of sonic objects – on occasion, even ordinary ones - in contexts where urban or natural environmental factors and a general vibe of amorphousness exemplify a critical incidence. For this album, Waldron utilized found sounds whose origin or character can be associated, more or less directly, to the same configuration that inspires the whole concept. Springs, whirling air, washing of fluids, soil noises, someone’s steps: everything seamed in an organic continuum, gradually losing its quintessence to establish a sort of spontaneous pattern, the crucial resonance of these elements merged in a synthesis of hypnotically cyclical, bottomless pulses featuring human echoes, bewildering electronic intermissions, gargantuan breathing, stifling vapours derived from liquefied compatibilities.
The corrosion of faith, the dissolution of confidence, the determination to identify with “what comes after” way before the moment is due: this excursion through the meanders of psychoactive mutability causes these and other reactions, working much better than thousands of inadequate words, involuntarily succeeding in depicting the frenetically unsystematic activity of the brain during the REM phase, the instant in which a huge quantity of data appears, memories from current and past experiences jumbled in a typically disjointed hotchpotch.
The collaboration between Irr. App. (Ext.) and Nurse With Wound didn’t crop up by chance: there are indeed a few sections that vaguely hint to Steve Stapleton’s tortuously nightmarish impenetrability. Still, behind Kreiselwelle lies a manifestly individual logic that only a rigorously open-minded inspection is going to disclose in full. It’s a record one could easily get lost in; subsequent to the decoding process, though, we find ourselves incredibly close to the essential core of what sound and its connection with non-standard mental procedures represent for our existence to keep flowing without excessive traumas. A difficult yet imperative conception, indispensable for detaching a fundamental reality from those self-constructed psychological shelters that inevitably lead to an early end or - at the very least – to unintelligent behaviour.
Finding a middle ground at all times is far from the best possible option for a complete development. And compromise, especially when your main beliefs are implicated, is a slow-but-sure assassin.
The Helen Scarsdale Agency
