Big City Orchestra - 6 Fairy Tales [Voluntary Whores 007]

The ineluctable cassette label Voluntary Whores is back with its seventh release these days, once again served as so-called art tape with special packaging and - more important - for the first time featuring musical works crafted by one of the most persistent projects in experimental electronic music and beyond. Talking the late 1970s formed Big City Orchestra here, a loose collective with ever changing members that has - so far - released more than 90 albums since 1985 exploring various variations of eclectic experimentalism on labels like EE Tapes, Negative Foundation, Staalplaat, UBUIBI and many many more, the appearance of this name alone on Voluntary Whore will raise brows of those who know and expose the label to a wider audience of music lovers. Talking music, the Big City Orchestra does not deny its roots in analogue production and their love for plunderphonics as they're adding a lot of found samples and probably field recorded sounds into their tense, repetetive loop structures that sometimes do have - especially when it comes to "Fairy Tale 4" - a slightly ritual feel that is suddenly dissolved by a sweet innocent melody. Apart from this we see the occasional pulsating Drone / Dark Ambient references popping up in an expertly crafted way as well as deep, nerve grinding listening music with a bit of Hitchcock'esque tension and what seems to be a field recorded earthquake in slow motion. Tense and recommended.