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AUGUST 2000 - RE:MOTE INDUCTION: website

hushush follow the H3O, Hafler Trio Tribute and Szkieve CDs with their third CD release Sfumato. Sfumato being the first in a series of three collaborative releases, appropriately entitled the Threesome Series. Each entry in the series featuring one artist taking the source material of another and creating an album from it. The cycle moving each artist through the role of supplier and finisher. Sfumato takes the source of Mark Spybey whose main work is as Dead Voices On Air, but has also worked as Propellor and with Zoviet France and Download. Giving the material to Ambre, which is comprised of John Sellekaers (Xingu Hill), Olivier Moreau (Imminent), and C-Drik (Crno Klank) who have released one previous album, Enclave, together (though John and Olivier = Urawa/Torsion; John and C-Drik = Moonsanto; Olivier and C-Drik = Axiome). Through the course of the 14 tracks there are moments which are distinctly from one side or the other, with as many not being representative of either.

Sfumato starts with the deep bass of Citadelle Interleure, slow sinking motions, fading at the edge. Each drop and the bass is more sustained, becoming sighs into which a light splashing comes. Increasingly haunted with progression it leads to the yawn of Visite Au Zoo Triste. The smooth bass played with a steady click beat. Wavers and spirals add little turns to the easy sound. Building readily on the ground of the first piece with an increasing complexity. The mechanisms of detail populating the cold openings with a slow hypnotic flavouring.

A metallic shimmering spiral builds into corrosion though as it seems it will reach a peak it is lost. Leaving us a bass tone filled with a mounting vibration. A mild, higher tone adds to the drone, so that while the whole seems to vary little it fills space with its reverberating awareness. Rain falls on La Cantarice Mauve, with mood filling in the background shades. A certain warmth in a sighing drone present in its mildness. High yells wander through like spirit voices. Ultimately a transitory piece, but on that ouches none the less.

Multiple layers mount in easy swirling edged melodies of L'horloge De Calcutta. The piano cloud builds with a buzz and disturbance in its midst. Pinning this sound down is not easy, as its vibe totally absorbs the listener in its layering growth. Sfumato continues with the pure Spybey moments of J'irai Cracher Sur Vos Ombres. Little clicks buzz the centre of layered drone oscillations. Beneath this shifting a mild melody and bass structure grows, entering your awareness. The rough edge and pulsing plummet of Zero Cinquante-neuf is by contrast pure Ambre. Playing with the bass motions of some alien scape, clean expansive layers. With the constant pulses come a really mild beat, and the echo of voices.

A mechanical chatter and answering machine tone lead us to the jazzy chugging of Le Clown Baxir Kodek. A decidedly curious piece surprising in its layering experimentation. Though it is short and followed by the breathtaking strings of La Loge Doree. Gently picked precision, with an oriental tone suggested. Too short, but it says what it needs to in its passage. Back in the slow, bass motions filled with rain territory we have Poussiere D'Absinthe. A little melody plays notes through the droning body. After three and a half minutes a clean, clear piano line comes up, leading to conclusion and the rattling spiral stroke of Derriere Le Rideau De Verre. Clear presence moving to a moment of fade before returning with high whirling motions. This piece shifts in complexities, moving into mildly creepy melodies and open spaces - fairy tales and illusions.

A Quoi Servents Les Morts? reverberates while picking out single notes. Tones shift through snaking melodies. Metallic percussion and horn bring us Machine D'espirits, a small moment of cacophony. Then we are left with the slow building conclusion of Le Printemps Des Abimes. The first section mixing a whipping wind with bass drone and high whine. Deeper tones shift in to the body in rise and fall pulses. There is a slight creaking of a tight hinge, or a gently tearing seal and the layers open up. Voices wail, and a stroking string works in a repeating chime vibration. Building density in layers suited to the conclusion of an album of this magnitude - outstanding!

As the first entry in the Threesome Sfumato sets a high standard to be followed. With the strongest tracks J'irai Cracher Sur Vos Ombres, Zero Cinquante-neuf, La Loge Doree and Le Printemps Des Abimes. Continuity is maintained as Spybey works the material of Harris to be released soon, followed by conclusion and full circle as Harris completes the series with material from Ambre before the end of the year. Anticipation is mounting. (PTR)

JULY 2000 - CODA

C'est la premiere partie d'une trilogie. Le troisieme larron n'etant autre que Mick Harris qui, a son tour, collaborera avec Mark Spybey puis avec Amber dans un futur proche. Mais pour l'heure, les protagonistes ouvrent les hostilites de maniere sournoise... Ils ont reussi a sublimer les climats musicaux a forte coloration dark-ambient qui les unissent par dela leurs divers projets respectifs. Leur CVs etant, finalement, encore la meilleure facon de decrire cette musique introspective. Rappelons brievement que, longtemps avant de s'illustrer sous le jovial pseudonyme de Dead Voices On Air, Mark Spybey fut membre de Zoviet*France puis de Download et Spasm.. Quant a Ambre, il s'agit bien sur de John N. Sellakaers, C-Drick et Olivier Moreau, trio de choc rescape de chez Reload Ambient et desormais resident chez Ant-Zen ou il multiplie ses actions en ordre disperse (Xingu Hill, Imminent, Axiome, etc ..) Ensemble ils tissent un univers post-industriel propice a la meditation transcendentale avec une touche d'humour narquoise comme en temoignent les titres des morceaux : "La cantatrice mauve", "L'horloge de Calcutta","J'irai crache sur vos ombres", "Poussiere d'absinthe", etc .... Excellent ! (Laurent Diouf)

JULY 2000 - EARPOLLUTION: website

A much more restrained project than I had anticipated, Sfumato explores the inner reaches of eerie silence as Ambre (the collective efforts of John N. Sellekaers, Olivier Moreau, and C-Drik) team up with Mark Spybey (Voices on Air and Propeller fame) to initiate a triptych of CDs for Canadian label Hushush. The Dead projectThreesome--sees two of three acts (the third being Mick Harris of Scorn, Lull, and Painkiller --entitled fametogether on a single release in a similar fashion to the Oedipus Brain Foil project last year from ) working SoleilmoonAmbre's debut release, Enclave from 1998 (and Ant-Zen Records) was a much noisier and creepier . albumyou would expect from Sellekaers and Moreau (who operate independently under the monikers of --what Xingu Hill and Imminent, respectively, as well as working together as Torsion); while Spybey, one-time member of Zoviet*France and regular contributor to Download, is equally known for the sonic assault of his work.
Shit, that's a lot to keep track of. Anyway, as I was saying, Sfumato isn't nearly the sandpaper-to-the-lips-experience that I had been gearing myself for. Surprisingly ambient, Sfumato explores the dread that lingers in the water drain and under the lip of the steam pipe. A resonant groaning of distant steel factories and water-laden towers permeates the disc and there is crawling uncertainty that wells up throughout. You expect something to come leaping out of your speakers and it isn't a disappointment that something doesn't--rather, the unease left in the passage of this disc is that something may yet, something may have been left--virus-like--in your system by the passage of this phantom beast that has slouched through your environment.

Hushush has left a greasy black mark high on the wall with this release, an unsettling reminder of the impact of the first third of the Threesome series. I'm looking forward to finding equally black marks left behind by the others. (Mark Teppo)

JUNE 2000 - AMBIENTRANCE: website

The musical minds at Hushush are experimenting with ambient collaborations via their Threesome series between ambre (a.k.a. Belgian John N. Sellekaers), mark spybey (of Dead Voices On Air Fame, etc.) and Mick Harris (of Lull, Scorn, et. al)

sfumato represents the first encounter, pairing Ambre and Spybey in 14 pieces which form a lovely, dark swirl of amorphous, murky soundscapes...

The majority of tracks are seeped with the curious antiquity of faded sepia-tone photos; soft, abstract audio-images which cannot be clearly divined, but provide many minutes of interest in trying to decipher their cryptic nuances...
Inside the Citadelle intérieure, a throbbing drone simply pulses, wavering in and out hypnotically, though briefly, water sounds are heard. Radiating waves of quavering highs and lows meet with a click-rhythm and the squeaking and clunking of what sounds like archaic wood-and-iron equipment of unknowable origin during Visite au zoo triste. The faintly buzzing thrum of L'horloge de calcutta (8:52) rhythmically churns, growing louder and nearer; even as it approaches, the ghostly sonic entities within are unclear, though alluring.

Scratchy and ripply, J'irai cracher sur vos ombres flutters with unidentifiable audiacoustic energies. Spookier, Zéro cinquante-neuf receives screeching outburts over a series of tonal reverberations backed by gritty electronic rhythms and occasional spoken radiovoices. Almost "musical", Le clown baxir kodek briefly dances in an animated arrangement, laced with weird trilling and other eccentric effects.

La loge dorée features distorted strings, jangling strangely. Mysterious mechanical humming pervades the hovering organ-like tones of Poussière d'absinthe; all fades to be replaced by quiet piano chords and grit. More active atmospheres stir Derrière le rideau de verre though once inside, a machine-like wash gives way to dreamier musicality; tinkling glasstones shimmer and a lilting bassline provides some buoyancy to the surrounding dreariness.

The metallically clattering strings and blaring brass tones of Machine d'esprits (1:06) are temporarily battered by clunky percussion. Wild winds and cavernous drones course through austere Le printemps des abîmes, a dank and moody crevice from which a clanging rhythm emerges. Warmer gusts flow in toward the close, giving just a hint of a happier ending, perhaps...

BTW, if you're French-impaired like me and need a little help deciphering the track titles, use the BabelFish translator to uncover the (still quite enigmatic) meanings...

Imagine the best connotation of the word "dismal" and apply it to these somber (or in deference to Ambre, sombre) abstractions. With the disfigured fruit of sfumato, he and mark spybey generate some serious audio oddities in an isolationist vein. Artistic weirdness at an 8.7 level.
Two more of Hushush's "Threesome" series should yield equally intriguing results... (David Opdyke)