Ulrich Krieger

Saxophonist and composer Ulrich Krieger is already widely respected for having been a part of the incredible Zeitkratzer and having collaborated with Merzbow. However this fifty-minute composition is possibly his most striking to date. A collaborative effort with Alan Licht, Tim Barnes and Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, 'Fathom' is a deep, doomy exercise in patience and subtlety. With stark, minimal percussion and a bleak, haunted soundscape punctuated by Krieger's blackened woodwind tones there is possibly more here in common with Bohren and the Club of Gore than Zeitkratzer. The slow, twisted, near-Americana brings to mind similar Lynchian imagery, yet gives it a hoarse growl rarely heard in Bohren's compositions. You need patience to listen to music such as this, but as Sunn o))) have shown us, patience can reveal the darkest, most rewarding music this side of witching hour. (Boomkat)