Ginnungagap
1000% Downer

THE REVIEW

Another work by the ingenious, intrepid, and torturous Stephen O'Malley, GINNUNGAGAP is a project that many will necessarily be unaware of (Boo!!), at least on a musical level... indeed, the three/four things that have been released from this umpteenth project from the mind of Sunn/Khanate/Burning witch, etc..., are virtually unavailable, as they are (ultra)limited editions, and never reprinted. This is the case with this 1000% Downer, from what I know the first work of the collective, in whose ranks also serves Dawn Smithson, distinguished singer of the never too underrated group Jessamine (R.I.P); this work was in fact released in the fall of 2004 in an edition of 500 dark blue vinyls, published by the hardline label Aurora Borealis... needless to say, the "rush" for the mail order lasted just a few days. I had the good sense to buy myself a copy at the Sunn+Boris concert, of which I also wrote the review... and since I fixed the turntable for Christmas, well, here I am!! On each side of the vinyl a track, to be played at 45 rpm, with an average duration of 9 and a half minutes... I still haven't figured out which is side A and which is side B, oh well, anyway... 2 tracks ("Reasonably Miserable"; "GuiFang") I was saying, united by the same spectrality, and by the use of distant and ashen, freezing drones... An album that is meditative, however disturbing: SOMA's guitar is at times unfathomable, such is the processing to which it is subjected (here comparable to certain experiments by Oren Ambarchi)... rustles, laments (in which Dawn excels...), silences full of suspense... almost chamber music, however permeated with sinister and not at all accommodating chants. To be internalized ad infinitum, a revenge of the cold on an exploitative humanity, capable of seeing in it only ski fields and ski lifts.