Beirut -based audio-artist Jad Atoui’s ‘It Will Take Forever’ takes you on a journey into the depths of sound. Experimental electronic music with the listener key to the experiment, it’s not a soundtrack to drift away or dream with. Atoui’s sonics have a physicality about them which will push and pull at your thoughts, feelings and reactions.
Often working with real spaces and engulfing these with sound, his music may be ambient in this sense but it’s rarely passive. Atoui draws from noise, power electronics, mod synth composition and electro-acoustic fusions but takes an improv approach to balance his soundscapes on a precarious edge. No wonder he’s gained attention and worked previously with the likes of such avant- cognoscenti as Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Laurie Anderson, Pauline Oliveros and John Zorn. It also no surprise that the pieces he features on ‘It Will Take Forever’ have germinated via live performances and bring with them that visceral thrill.
Pressure Dream establishes the marker for the album’s level of intensity. Built around a gnawing rhythmic buzz, like a relentless fly scorched by a light bulb, the throb is the source of much more. Atoui probes timbre, dragging different abrasive effects with each revolution. As the pitch tightens, swirling orchestration and fluttery synths squeeze into the sound-space while the rhythm stutters in response. It’s a struggle, a tussle of noise and harmony which when sucked out leaves some beauty quivering.
Drawing further on power electronics references the menacing Purge is a haunting encapsulation of devastation. The rumbling drone groans and high voltage sparks hiss in a Whitehouse-like excavation before a blistering explosion leaves fractious human shouts in its wake. Yes, the piece demands endurance as the final scouring monotone ploughs deeper but with the hint of a distant arpeggio twirling in the distance there is once more a twinge of solace.
It’s clear from ‘It Will Take Forever’ that Jad Atoui has a masterful grasp of infusing his music with intriguing undercurrents. The subtle surge of dance music and muffled techno pulses simmer within Haptic Drift’s low drone. On this cut sudden percussive smacks and stuttering house chords feed an edgy climax which parallels a Tim Hecker /‘Rave Death 72’ moment of suspense. Reaching Heart dials up the urgency further through shuddering sub-bass, piercing harmonics and stampeding thuds but then a surprise. As orchestral waves uncurl there are soothing chord changes breaking over those jagged electronic edges.
Such unexpected twists which seep through Atoui’s pieces on this album both unsettle and intrigue at the same time. During the sombre melodic pause of Blue Moon Red Cloud, which glides slowly like a Divachi processional, you are dared to be soothed by the resonance. The frantic finale of Weather Of Collapse pitches irritable staccato strings and white noise against an anchoring beat and resolving chord passages. As the noise squall rises you sense a chaotic ending but almost imperceptibly a distant song survives.
Such contrasts and contradictions are important. Jad Atoui’s ‘It Will Take Forever’ certainly challenges the listener but the album has inner truths waiting to be discovered.
Get your copy of ‘It Will Take Forever‘ by Jad Atoui from your local record store or direct from Ruptured Records HERE
