St. Kirchhoff - For The Void [Umland Records 042]

Scheduled for release via Essen's finest Umland Records-label as their cat.no. 042 in early May, 2k21 is "For The Void", the latest album created by St. Kirchhoff and probably his most experimental one to this day. Based on an instrumental foundation of guitars, banjos (!!!) and electronics and with both string instruments being bowed in several tracks Mr. Kirchhoff creates a sonic landscape comprised of nine tracks, stretched out over roughly 41 minutes total play time and meandering in between a strange, somewhat outerworldy and haunting, midrange-focused lo-fi variation of isolationist Nordic Folk presented in the opening miniature that is "Oki", absolutely brutal, ear-piercing and feedback-driven HarshNoize in full-on psychotic madness mode in the subsequent "My Cause Is Righteous Do Not Get In My Way" as well as twangy, intimate minimalism in "No Why" for the first three cuts. Furthermore "Shumagorath Bathwater" dabbles with elements of electro-acoustic compositions, glitched rhythm signatures and gnarly, woofer shaking, yet nearly inaudible low end movements whilst "Softlock" returns to a possibly Asia-inspired mostly acoustic exploration of plucked strings and "Labour" enters a world of well ominous rumblings accompanied by what seem to be noises related to mechanical computation and a surprisingly funky, comforting sub foundation somehow evoking memories of Augsburg-based band outfit Deep in their late 90s prime. The follow up that is "Shock Collar Robot Slave Goons" dives head over heels into a pool of crumbling, probably Max/MSP-processed, decaying electric guitar solos and feedbacks, the title "Here In The Void We Don't Talk About The Void" is somewhat reminiscent of Rule 1 and Rule 2 in terms of /b and the concluding cut that is "Disengage" waves goodbye in a most naturalistic, pure and innocent manner when it comes to unaltered, tempered and unprocessed banjo campfire intimacy. Recommended.