22'22''

Regular contributors to the Touch label and all-round emperors of drone BJ Nilsen and Z'ev pair up for three twenty-two minute, twenty-two second sound works (one of which isn't listed). Nilsen takes on the first piece alone, opting for a foggy mass of sonic dread, sounding not unlike The Hafler Trio's most recent output or even Deathprod's nebulous black mass audio. Nilsen's electroacoustic chops are all but hidden away here, though towards the end you get glimpses of some of the source recordings used on the album. This material is more prevalent on Z'ev's versoin of the piece, which takes a less subtle path, fashioning industrial slabs of hum, factory noise and cymbal splashes. Nothing happens in the final (collaborative) track until about seventeen and a half minutes in. Slowly, gong-like drones arise from the silence while clattering, aircraft hangar-sized percussive noises start thrashing around in the background. You get the feeling this might be the raw recordings that served as the starting point for the album, but given that it isn't actually mentioned anywhere, you can't really be sure. Enigmatic, aloof and often quite challenging, 22'22" comes highly recommended to all followers of dark drones.