My first reaction on receiving this was to check out if there is a volume 1 to 3. I am pleased to tell you that there is, the artists involved in these collections of splits from Sombre Soniks being Embers below Zero / Grist, Akoustik Timbre Frekuency / Temple Music and Druhá smrt / raxil4. My second action was to read up on Guy Harries, who unlike [ówt krì] I didn’t know. Guy Harries in fact has quite a cv. He is a composer, sound artist and electroacoustic performer, specialising in “participatory audiovisual installations”. The other half of this split belongs to Finland’s [ówt krì], the brainchild of Kenneth Kovasin, who has been experimenting with sound and invading our minds with thought-provoking images from a self-created dark ambient world for some time.

“Reduction – Reaction” is the title of the 25 minute [ówt krì] piece. As ever it is dissonant and suggestive and full of strange and imposing shapes, but what it is suggesting is left to our imagination as usual. I felt that we were floating through space. Echoing voices can be heard like lost souls as the cosmic orchestra sets out on its journey. Or maybe we are the bottom of the sea. It is threatening. Mechanical noises mix with sonic whistles and a strange and nightmarish voice uttering “ra” repeatedly and disturbingly. What is “ra”? Is it a spiritual message? It worries me. We continue to float out of control with this menacing sonic attack. It fades away momentarily. A deep drone of a different kind invades the background. In the foreground it continues to be like an orchestra tuning up in space. The drone has something mystical like a mantra. The sound is almost industrial but it’s out there. The deep sound could be a ship issuing warnings in a foggy dock, or a spiritual message. As the mechanical-cosmic swirling sound continues, a repetitious ring brings tension into the air. The noise intensifies, but the insistent ring doesn’t go away. All the sounds loop back. Whistling, haunting background howls, the industrial process and that sharp, increasingly intrusive “ra” – this is a cold, unforgiving expanse where humans are obscurities in the middle of these sonic waves which drive this. It’s intensely deep, disturbing, and vivid. It’s like drifting away helplessly on a spacecraft, but all the while we are exposed to danger and uncontrollable external forces.

Now I’ve given you my impressions of “Reduction – Reaction” without knowing at the time of listening to it any of the story or intended theme. Indeed, to quote the composer of it: “one of the riches in abstract arts … is the multitude of impressions it leaves among different people”. And therein lies the interest, for me anyway. What is most interesting is how these sounds are woven together, quite literally I understand as this was developed from individual pieces. Unsurprisingly, it revolves thematically around the despair arising from the state of our planet and the need for mankind to reduce and adapt its lifestyle in the light of pandemics and other things going on. I got all that, but didn’t capture the positivity that purports to be there. For me I was still engaged in the struggle after 25 minutes, but above all it’s an intriguing and imaginatively presented struggle presented through the medium of dynamic and confrontational sound art.

So to Guy Harries for his 26 minute “Summer Ecstasy”, which sounded a whole lot more pleasant. Round and round we go in electronic circuits. The sound waves expand and contract and become distorted. It’s coherent in the sense that a foreign language is even if you don’t understand it. But from the grey matter comes a tune. This tune with its constant undercurrent, is reminiscent of early Kraftwerk. Where the first part is sinister by virtue of its distortion, the fluty sound is that of a lovely bright spring day. It’s like a new dawn, as we shuffle along happily. The backing electronic loop is almost Celtic in its way as we bound along like lambs gamboling in a field. This is truly uplifting and invigorating. Slightly darker sound waves appear in the underscore two-thirds of the way through, but it is still mobile. Things change or rather transform, as they do in life, and our journey takes on a more thoughtful and even sinister turn. It never stops and this gives cause for hope. The beat is active. Warped sounds surround the beat but there is constancy. The flute provides levity. We are then for the first time faced with uncertainty as we hear obscure voices and bells, and the echoing, musical sound of dripping water, then the lapping water of the shore. To end the musical journey, it sounds as if we are alone in a forest surrounded by nature. Night time has descended. The wonderland Guy Harries has created is now scary but there is no direct threat. So our situation is uncertain, but Guy Harries invigorated my mind and imagination with this inspiring piece.

These are two distinct pieces but as a pairing there’s a clever balance. If [ówt krì] present a dark and threatening face, and asks questions, then Guy Harries provides hope through his intriguing soundscapes. The pictures that Guy Harries paints are less abstract and less challenging, to me anyway, than those of [ówt krì]. It just proves how two different approaches to electronic music and sound can result in different but equally interesting and mentally stimulating outcomes. It’s like profound books without words. The one thing that both these artists do is to create extraordinary sounds and visions which connect to my mind and shape images. From them I found myself piecing together stories, journeys, experiences.

(9/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/owtkri

https://sombresoniks.com/guy-harries

https://sombresoniks.bandcamp.com/album/split-frequencies-vol-iv