Jon Mueller: Family Secret (American Dreams Records, 2021)
January 23, 2021 at 1:25 pm | Posted in Reviews | 1 Comment
Jon Mueller: Family Secret
Percussionist Jon Mueller (of Volcano Choir, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Mind Over Mirrors, and other projects) recorded
this album at home using gongs and singing bowls, among other instruments. As he created these four pieces, he experimented with perception change, particularly by using different lighting conditions. He’s been doing these lighting and perception experiments since he was in college three decades ago, and doing this has had nearly hallucinatory effects, and helped him engage with his family’s past. The music itself is sparse, haunting drone that sounds like it’s emanating from a cave. It’s not unlike Thomas Köner’s gong experiments, or some of Lustmord’s more lo-fi dark ambient works. “Black Glass” is a particular highlight, establishing a drone that feels like shining, gleaming light and then striking it with sudden flares of darkness. “Ignited Hands” is shorter and more metallic, sounding like a bucket of chains being whirled around in an echo chamber, and resembling dronier Nurse With Wound, like a reduced excerpt from albums like
Soliloquy for Lilith or
Trippin’ Musik. “Welcome” is a more stretched out variation on the album’s techniques, and seems to be the one produced under deepest concentration, rewarding deeper listening.
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