Sometimes a necessity exists to neglect the ordinary logic related to a review, in order to address more significant concerns. In tackling the work of Novi_sad (Thanasis Kaproulias) we are privileged to discuss the research of a man profoundly connected with the foundational circumstances of experience. The material ones include journeying across several parts of the world and cooperating with other artistic identities. However, the metaphysical ones – not requiring, in Kaproulias’ case, verbal explication – decisively inform the 56-plus minutes of this disc.
The sounds encompassed by the five tracks of ΚΕΡΑΥΝΟΣ – each bearing the name of the continent from which the respective field recordings originate – are not categorizable as mere selections and/or juxtapositions. They definitely contribute to shaping the character of every piece, and some of them will undeniably furrow the core of a sympathetic being. The aforementioned environmental tones are primarily, but not exclusively meteorological and ornithological in nature. Their positioning together with droning elements of unknown descent does not necessarily warrant striving for a fusion. On the contrary, Kaproulias would have us clearly differentiate the object of aural inspection. Still, the transcendental tissue of certain bodies of resonance can easily drop the listener into a trance-like condition. My favorite episode in that regard is “Asia”, its subsurface echoes and low-frequency murmurs recalling both Thomas Köner’s deepest investigations and Klaus Wiese’s extramundane endlessness.
This interchanging of biotic concreteness and extracorporeal wavering is the record’s most compelling feature. Kaproulias found a conjunction point between earthly awareness – not by coincidence, this is a homage to our seriously ill planet – and the indispensability of shifting gears towards the innermost spheres. We get ready for the next stage through the absorption of harmonic matter that may be deceptively motionless, yet is loaded with innate tensions. As early as the third or fourth listening, those possessing the means to acknowledge the implicit signals will be primed to a new important apprenticeship.
MASSIMO RICCI. TOUCHING EXTREMES. 