Gerritt Wittmer - Portions of Hell (CDr 2010)
Gerritt Wittmer - Portions of Hell (CDr 2010)
I love the adventure of moving between the portions of Hell. Very exciting changes and dynamics make this a compelling experience and a thoughtful, challenging work. It has revealed itself to me as an ultradynamic ritual and a fascinating contemporary experimental music masterpiece for 2010.
Inhaled balloon squish, exhaled incantations guttural deep fire, voice of the hellstorm.
Steeped in contrasts, the simple, mostly minimal, presentation is so endearingly complex and inviting. Rich, mucousy groans transforming sharply digital... Blown reeds and deep machinery idling. Compositional silence and silent storytelling. Birds chirp and insects buzz, the chains of Hell juxtapose well. Subtle and overwhelming. Pinball and puke. Shock and cleanse.
Pondering a narrative to the audio while listening was an inescapable exercise, yet the recordings are perfectly lucid themselves... A fire burns in Gerritt's throat as he plucks his contact mic'ed teeth with fishing lines and orchestrates a restrained pyromaniac modern composition for dentistry and voice. (That's track 1).
The experience is unto itself. Well planned, well executed. Gorgeously presented. Detailed, high tolerance precision production; concise and commanding. Strange and beautiful.