Bedroom Community really is a community, proven by the fact that Ben Frost and Valgeir Sigurðsson each contribute to Francesco Fabris‘ latest collection of disruptive sound. The most abrasive textures may remind long-term listeners of Frost’s seminal By the Throat. We last heard Fabris and Frost on VAKNING, one of our top field recording albums of 2023; after releasing three collaborative EPs, Fabris is about to unveil DISPLACES.
The striking cover sculpture by Fabris and Mik Boiter looks like a corrupted Green Man, infused with metal and brick. The sound follows suit, an amalgamation of sounds organic and electronic. From the micro to the macro, the cold to the warm, the aural map is a reflection of Iceland’s mercurial land and weather systems; one can hear, or one thinks one can hear volcanos erupting, ice cracking, the ground shifting beneath one’s feet. The human element is represented by the langspil, which adds emotional resonance to the rumble, the fissure, the break.
From the very beginning, the “Extraction of the I,” the listener realizes that the land is unstable. The sonic field is in constant flux, from the field recordings themselves to the additional layers of manipulation and refinement. The surging chords are an eruption waiting to occur, but the track ends abruptly, another inversion of expectation, followed by breath and disconnected beat. Below the surface, a subterranean rumble, accompanied by flowing water and suggestions of a spectral choir: is the earth attempting to communicate through the voices of the dead? And what of the high-pitched whistle that crosses the chasm to “Barricading the Ice Sheets”? The highest and lowest frequencies sing songs few will ever hear. Each metallic drone creates its own sheet. Finally, front and center, one hears the sound of fracture and break.
The “Monolith” pieces arrive as respites, suggesting a suspension of movement or a glacial crawl. Such dynamic contrast heightens the tension; the turbulence of “A Quake in Being” arises slowly before pouncing, filling the listener with dread. Yet in the final minute, chimes offer grounding ~ an experience even more powerful when repeated at the end of “Wolf-Rayet” with church bells. “The Map is the Territory” speaks to the album’s title and theme; as the “familiar may become the unfamiliar,” the opposite experience can also materialize, albeit briefly, given a single sonic cue.
The experience of displacement is not confined to magma and ice; individuals and societies can also lose their mooring and yearn for stable ground. DISPLACES is a reminder that stability is an illusion; the entire planet, from microbe to axis, morphs and rotates and twirls. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 