J G THIRLWELL & SIMON STEENSLAND: OSCILLOSPIRA

Complicated, dissonant, and non-straightforward sound structural reform should get to be a unified temptation with enough fermentation and maturation. We are definitely in trouble with what we say for this creation, but it's obvious this album is splendid. "Oscillospira" released in 2020 is one of the most listener-friendly albums, let me say. Such a quite colourful, diverse melodic / rhythmic world created by JG THIRLWELL and Simon STEENSLAND would catch our heart completely, not catchy nor easy to digest though. Difficult to find what is the acceptable element, but their soundscape like water flowing should be important. Every single track is a bit long but it's kinda fascination we cannot feel the length itself via this album. Their brilliant performance full of unification should be the key morphological point.

From the beginning of the first shot "Catholic Deceit" we are drenched in smooth but hypertensive sound material. Impressive, innovative is the horn-section-originated hard-edged sound steppin'. It's pretty emergent and energetic. The opening gives us a suggestion where to go, but we MUST get deceived soon. Please touch the following "Heron" flooded with crazy avantgarde chamber vibes combined with metallic havoc, and get driven into madness. "Night Shift" is sorta combination of heaviness, darkness, and quietness. Strong impression through wind-instrument- oriented jazzy, deep structure in the former part gradually shifts dark but dreamy quietness ... this modification is enjoyable. "Papal Stain" has more unstable but gorgeous, beautiful psychedelia seasoned with synthesizer-based starshine sounds and excessively dignified lines that remind us of the similarity to King Crimson. "Heresy Flank" featuring JG's lyrical voices and Simon's percussive sound creatures is theatrical and dramatic. Wondering always why they can play such a tough movement in a precise manner, and no suspicion we are immersed in this precision by them. In "Mare" bright but weird strain atmosphere is standing face to face with explosive sound dissection. What a tension. "Crystal Night" is produced with twisted violin sounds and irregular but supportive synthesizer background. Quite tingling sensation it launches, regardless of the shortest one in this album. The last "Redbug" filled with kaleidoscopic melodic development like "they are putting upon their last spurt, to be all over" can be very suitable for the epilogue of this artistic opus.

We can feel apparent temptation via this stuff. A long and great journey.

4.5 stars. I have a lot of appreciation for Simon's "Led Circus", "Fat Again" and "A Farewell To Brains" but I also have some minor issues with all of his stuff. Still he plays that dark and heavy style I like and he flirts often with Zeuhl and is without question an Avant artist. Adventerous is the word and being from Sweden he has some known musicians from our music world helping him out. This release from 2020 at 70 minutes is his most consistent album in my opinion, and I mean consistently great. Sure it leans more to the orchestral and classical realm than the Zeuhl/Rock mode I prefer but I have zero complaints here.

This is a collaboration with Australia's JG Thirwell a multi- instrumentalist and fan of Simon's music mentioning "Led Circus" and "Fat Again" he recounts "I admired the dark power in his work and it seemed adjacent to a lot of music that I love and inspires me- groups in the RIO and Zeuhl worlds such as MAGMA, UNIVERS ZERO and PRESENT, as well as 70's era KING CRIMSON and Bartok." This is a true partnership with each composing four tracks but they make it clear in the liner notes that each contributed a considerable amount of composed parts to each others work.

This is a trio and what a trio! Thirwell, Steensland and drummer Morgan Agren and then we get eleven guests adding flavours with wordless vocals, sax, violin, cello, oboe, bass clarinet, trombone and guitars. This is dense and dark without flaws. Each track is a journey itself into a new world that I find quite fascinating. The opener "Catholic Deceit", closer "Redbug" and also "Heresy Flank" are my top three and what an imposing trio of songs that is! Agren on drums is huge here but he does not dominate at all. Such a group effort with their egos put aside to create this almost perfect album when it comes to that dark and classically inspired music they created here. A top five for 2020 without question and I'm bumping this one up to 5 stars.