Search - The Mnemonists :: Horde

Highly evolved noise.

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 09/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Actually, this is a BRILLIANT album. Contrary to the other superficial reviews, I must say the Mnemonist Orchestra produced a truly great album here.



"If I knew you could make money off this I would have recorded my first grade music class."



Putting aside the fact that the Mnemonists probably didn't make much money off this album (in any at all), more-than-casual listening shows that this is considerably beyond the random, asinine noise of a first-grade music class. The Mnemonists have the sonic profundity of AMM but the difference is that this is composed rather than improvised. The Mnemonist Orchestra is apparently some kind of art group based on both visuals and sound. Of the nine people in the ensemble, four of them provide "visuals". Of course, on the CD you only get the music, not the accompanying visuals, but it hardly seems to be missing anything. The instrumentation consists of guitar, piano, saxophone, clarinet, recorder, viola, cello, double bass, crumhorn, shawm, and voice, with percussion on a few tracks. There is a lot of sound processing and tape manipulation as well. Often, instruments are treated to be rendered unrecognizable. _The Horde_ is meticulously constructed, a wash of thick, watery sound that hides remarkable compositional vision. It kind of lacks much in the way of linear development, but with the whole, electronically-processed layers of hazy sounds are microcosms of clever tonal experimentation, astounding timbral vitality, and cackling tension. Some would use the word "noisy" to describe it, and I suppose it kind of is, but _Horde_ is a mostly quiet album, and rather than assaulting your auditory senses, it is gently, startlingly compelling and sometimes very beautiful.



Don't underestimate this album. It provides valuable listening experiences, to say the least."