Simon Whetham - (II)ntolerance [Kohlhaas Records 024 Promo]

Scheduled for release via the Italian Kohlhaas Records imprint on April 22nd, 2k22 is "(II)ntolerance", the follow up album by Simon Whetham to his 2017 released longplay piece "InTolerance" which pretty much deals with an opposite set of themes and parameters in comparison to its predecessor. Whilst the 2017 outing was all about the freedom to travel freely the world has become a different place, with movement restricted due to the pandemic situation and - for UK citizens like Whetham - further hindrances and restrictions coming along with brexit. This being said, the fourteen pieces featured on the 41 minutes spanning body of work that is "(II)ntolerance" provide a listening experience as abstract as things can be, each consisting of a sequence of singular movements, short bursts and excerpts of or sonically magnified x reprocessed Field Recordings, crackly shifts, static low frequency rumbles, metallic clangs, mechanical / robotic motions and other most granular, sometimes even avalanche'esque sonic events which, seen in their entirety, provide a feel of modern age liminality, gnawing anxiety and an overwhelming sense of ones life being hollowed out by being stuck within a certain state of transition devoid of a final destination, change of status or irrevocable return to normalcy which, as a continuous state of affairs, might be too hard to handle for many - especially if there's no silver lining to be found shimmering at the very far end of the horizon. Quite a desolate, hard to grasp and partially even threatening affair, this.