Desire Path Recordings, a Buffalo-based label that specializes in immaculate vinyl editions, recently initiated the Tangents series to focus on releasing CDs of long-form compositions that are not feasible for the LP format. Leading off the series is Not Knowing, a nearly hour-long piece of drone excellence from Chicago-based artist Nicholas Szczepanik.
The single, epic track was originally conceived as a shorter piece dedicated to the French composer Eliane Radigue and issued as part of the Ante Algo Azul series of self-released CD-Rs. Here, Szczepanik stretches the source material into a cascading narrative of formless beauty. Beginning as a nearly eternal throbbing hum, the piece eventually blossoms over and over again with dreamlike streamers of sound.
What sounds to be an immense string section sends the stars dancing effortlessly across the sky before allowing them to wink out slowly. The glowing pink clouds of dawn appear and drown out any darkness before a final ringing note gives way to the undulating frequencies from which the entire piece was birthed. Glorious in nature and gargantuan in scope, Not Knowing must be heard to be believed.
(Desire Path)The single, epic track was originally conceived as a shorter piece dedicated to the French composer Eliane Radigue and issued as part of the Ante Algo Azul series of self-released CD-Rs. Here, Szczepanik stretches the source material into a cascading narrative of formless beauty. Beginning as a nearly eternal throbbing hum, the piece eventually blossoms over and over again with dreamlike streamers of sound.
What sounds to be an immense string section sends the stars dancing effortlessly across the sky before allowing them to wink out slowly. The glowing pink clouds of dawn appear and drown out any darkness before a final ringing note gives way to the undulating frequencies from which the entire piece was birthed. Glorious in nature and gargantuan in scope, Not Knowing must be heard to be believed.