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Robert Turman & Aaron Dilloway
Blizzard (Hanson) CD

This collaboration between longtime experimentalist Robert Turman, who was in Non—yes, Boyd Rice’s Non—in the 1970s, and Aaron Dilloway, formerly of Wolf Eyes, was recorded in January 2009 in the midst of raging snowstorm. The CD’s title, then, references this actual winter storm, rather than any metaphoric blizzard of noise. Dilloway is on synthesizer and tape delays, while Turman handles the tape manipulations here. It all starts benignly enough with a throbbing synth drone, punctuated by the howl of some sort of reed flute (at least I think that’s what it is anyway). It’s surprisingly Popol Vuh-like, conjuring images of Kinski on the Amazon, more than the windswept snows of Ohio. While things get more rough and ragged midway through “Blizzard 2,” this is never really a noise blow out. It’s really quite musical, in spite of the layers of grit and shards of sound that pierce the deep, sub-bass yawn and oscillating drones. Overall, it’s a surprisingly pretty album, though not without an undercurrent of menace lurking throughout.

-Susanna Bolle

 

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