ROLL THE DICE - Until Silence

In their two previous releases, the collaborations between Peder Mannerfelt and Malcolm Pardon had produced small but unforgettable marvels. Roll The Dice is the most authentic proof of how a chance encounter and an unlikely subsequent partnership can almost accidentally give rise to one of the most interesting acts in the ever-expanding landscape of experimental electronic music. We talked about Mannerfelt last year on the occasion of the not exactly thrilling abstract experiment of “Line Describing Circle”, whose sounds spill quite a bit into this new chapter of the saga alongside Pardon, who for his part continues to inject his cinematic touch into his colleague's synthetic outgrowths.

But the news that “Until Silence” brings is that the wheel, which had previously been able to spin at supersonic speed, unexpectedly slows its course quite considerably. This isn't exactly a setback, but rather an abrupt return to planet Earth, a return that objectively no one would have expected, but one that coincides with the courageous choice to vary a formula that could comfortably have been confirmed without any alteration. Instead, Mannerfelt tries to dare and push further, channeling his rough, scratchy post-kraut shards into the Roll The Dice cauldron, causing it to lose the analog elegance of the past and gain a new form of visceral unease.

The gamble shows great potential but a rather high degree of developmental complexity: “Assembly” is a small masterpiece, a majestic symphony that could slot straight into the finest moments of cinematic minimalism, if only it were actually accompanying a film. The massive deployment of strings and the “symphonic” character are the new elements on the Pardon side, special effects that make the difference when applied to solid structures, but which tend to fizzle out on themselves wherever the wrong gear is engaged: emblematic of this are the harsher passages, such as the equally cyclical “Perpetual Motion” and the gratuitously harsh “Coup De Grâce”. Even more unjustified are the brief and arid dark-ambient miniatures of “Time And Mercy” and “Someone's Land”.

Saving the day are a couple of masterstrokes that go back to evoking the glories and sounds of the recent past, updating them with a selection of the experimented novelties: “Blood In Blood Out” keeps its epic character and, in the finale, its choral quality, but brings the settings back to the original piano-synth dimension, while “Wherever I Go, Darkness Follows” could easily be an outtake from “In Dust”. And for an “In Deference” that seemed to close things out in an equally “traditional” manner, only to get caked in mud and sludge in its finale, there's an “Aridity” that pays homage to late-period Harold Budd, confirming, if it were ever in doubt, that Roll The Dice still has plenty of shots left in the chamber. And that, all things considered, the courage to try for a change of air still deserves a word of encouragement.

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21/06/2014