"A Moment of Infinity is the second collaboration between Artemiy Artemiev and Phillip B. Klingler (aka PBK). 'Dreams in Moving Space' (released in 2000) created an eerie, haunted atmosphere. This one is more tempered, although 'A Rite of Passage' has its disquieting moments. Most of the elements from the first album were used again, but with more subtlety. Ghostly samples play a lesser role. Whenever rhythms appear, they consist of tribal percussion instead of electronic beats. Here, one must point out the quality of the programming. Everything on the album is played via keyboards -- no 'real' percussion whatsoever, but they truly feel natural. 'Broken Sleep in the Fracture Zone' quickly sets the tone: long keyboard chords, spacy synth swirls, some odd samples, and unidentified sounds. All this is sculpted with great artistry, more detailed but with less immediate impact than on the previous CD. The first track ends with an episode of tribal percussion and grunts, very suggestive. The main piece should be the 27-minute title track, but it gets lost in its own meanders, lingering on for too long. It is quickly eclipsed by 'A Rite of Passage', where the voice of Artemiev's young son, sampled women voices, and heavier experimental electronics (filter manipulations the likes of Fennesz and Hazard) give the piece a different personality and bring the album to an excellent stop. A Moment of Infinity requires a bit more effort from the listener, but it rewards accordingly." (AllMusic Guide)
"A Moment of Infinity opens with 'Broken Sleep in the Fracture Zone', an eleven minute collage of ambient drones, industrial creaks and groans, distant 'tribal' like percussion, and an overwhelming feeling of being a speck in the cosmos. I also get a disturbing mind-picture of a blasted landscape full of the distant howls of whalesong or mutated foghorns... Next track is 'The Other Side of the Inner World' - this opens with some slow and very deep marimba-type vibes mixed with gentle, almost industrial style drones, a gamelan drifts in and out, the whole soundscape just drifts in space past that orbiting Dunkin' DoNuts franchise with its flickering fluorescent sign. 'Endless Voyage' is next, and as the title suggests it is extremely cosmic - again a drifting, shifting variety of drones and samples weave and entwine across the speakers, a clock strikes the hour and then morphs into a mutated twang, this track doesn't really go anywhere, but that, of course, is the whole point. The overall effect is of hanging around one of the LaGrange Points in a spacesuit and literally chillin' out... Track 4, 'In a Moment of Infinity' is the album's magnum opus in terms of length - twenty seven minutes and small change - and once again a clock is striking the hour over some low key drones and pulses, riven here and there with sampled choral voices and radio-astronomy radio chatter. One keeps expecting to see the monolith from '2001: A Space Odyssey' floating across the speakers. Despite its length, there's a richness in sound and feel here, and an awe-inspiring timelessness - space is kinda huge, ya know, but that space between your ears is even bigger! The final track is 'A Rite of Passage', darker sounds now, perhaps the ghouls of a graveyard are coming out to play, the sounds are certainly more demonic. A tribal, almost voodoo, beat emerges from the crowing voices and it chugs along as the drums beat on, joined by the flapping of batwings. Voices chant in the distance, debatable whether they are angelic or that of the Hellish Host - then again, this could be where all the rappers go when they die... 'A Moment of Infinity' is an impressive album - for much of its duration it is a space trip, the nearest thing to hitching a lift on that UFO doing the grand tour of the Solar System and all points up. Only the final track tends to darken that vision into something akin to falling into a black hole. This collaboration between Artemiy Artemiev and Phillip B. Klinger seems to have brought out the visionary in both of them and it is a vision well worth seeking out." (The Borderland)
"The prolific Russian musician, composer and producer Artemiy Artemiev continues his collaborations with other musicians from all over the world. 'A Moment of Infinity' showcases five long experimental and artsy suites with e-orchestral backgrounds and noises worked out with Phillip B. Klingler, whom we are used to refer to as P.B.K.. This is Artemiev's second collaboration with him (the first one being 'Dreams in Moving Space', 2000) but the overall sound differs from the first one as it is more atmospheric and less "noir". There are practically no electronic beats and actually no definite rhythmical structures are to be found (except for a short percussive pattern in the last and darker composition), yet there are a number of weird tribal sampled percussions that give it a truly native and distant appeal. The Russian coldness of deserted landscapes covered in snow is only one of the virtual places you will visit when travelling this musical journey... On the other hand percussive (mainly metallic percussion) sounds sometimes almost recall African shores, like a warmer wind blowing through the snow and melting the snow... Clearly, it is a very visionary album. Industrial drones interwove with ritual field sounds, atmospheres of stillness and infinity are the playground for spacey and drifting experimentalisms that remind me of a bunch of releases from 'Extreme Records' I once reviewed, which included Skuli Sverrison's all-bass 'Seremonie' album and a Shinjuku Thief work. Almost 70 minutes of glacial and noble avant-garde sounds for the true lovers of envelope-pushing." (Chain D.L.K.)
"A Moment Of Infinity (ELCD 022) is another collaboration. This time Artemiy is with Phillip B. Klingler. Again, it's a five track album, ranging from the fairly short (!) five minutes twenty, to the title track, an almost album-length stunner, at 27 minutes. 'Broken Sleep in the Fracture Zone' kicks off the album and we're straight into industrial ambience. I love albums like this with titles rather than part numbers as it imparts what the writers have in mind (well, I like to think that!). 'Fracture Zone' is a dark, menacing place where a steady ambient wash is punctuated by effects and strange, alien sounds. Cracking opener although I'm not too sure about the later addition of the drums. 'The Other Side of the Inner World' reminds the listener of some fogbound landscape, with frost forming on the branches of the willow near the lake... Again, a superbly atmospheric piece with ambient washes and sfx ranging from reversed sounds, bells, and additional washes of dark ambience. 'Endless Voyage' is actually quite a light and uplifting piece, almost as if the sun was breaking through the clouds, having spent the night next to the above lake! Ambience proliferates in waves whilst low and deep sfx underpin it all - a really superb piece. The title track is next, all twenty seven minutes. How do you begin with such little space? Well, as you should know by now, pieces as long as this morph and evolve like a life form. Well, surprisingly it doesn't change too dramatically in all that time. It starts with what I could well imagine a graveyard scene where a bells is tolling with spirit choirs fading in and out with a variety of truly unsettling effects. These gradually build and build, and like I say, slightly alter, which doesn't actually change to piece too much. 'Rite of Passage' is as spooky as hell. In and amongst the effects, Artemiy Jnr. makes his vocal debut and those noises the baby makes are echoed and treated to produce an intensely unsettling effect! The piece builds up with soft metallic sheets interspersed with samples of vocals and sfx, morphed to a point where they sound alien to the ears. Unsettling, yet inventive as hell. The beat that arrives after around four minutes gives a good anchor to one's sanity - it sounds almost like a skiffle!" (Modern Dance)
"Artemiy Artemiev has solid credentials in the field of avant-garde electroacoustic music, from his earlier electronic endeavors like 'Cold' and 'Point of Intersection', to his Electroshock label Electroacoustic Music series, each presenting an array of experimental compositions by various composers. These four recent releases present collaborations with some of his notable contemporaries; in the case of PBK and Frohmader, Artemiev has collaborated with them on earlier recordings, while these are his first with Seattle based De Laurentis and the British ensemble Karda Estra. "A Moment of Infinity" operates in pretty much similar territory as '57 Minutes to Silence', but tends to be more integrated with fragmentary melodic content - however abstract, via the use of electronics and percussives, and an overall higher density. This gives it a somewhat less industrial character, although it's still very avant-garde and free form. And did I mention dark? Again, the primary source of content seems to be that of sampled and processed slabs of sound, often juxtaposed with the synths and percussives in such a way to produce a fairly disturbing soundscape. 'The Other Side of the Inner World' is perhaps the most sinister of the five tracks herein, with low-frequency droning sharing space with seemingly random percussion and found sounds. The title track stretches out for nearly half an hour of drifting, arhythmic industrial hell-sounds over haunting drones, with random outbursts of recognizable instrumentation. Some interesting stuff here, not unlike the soundtrack for a horror movie. In summary, these showcase a new waterfront in electroacoustic music, reaching well beyond traditional electronic and ambient realms and infusing both with some very avant-garde and experimental ideas. While any of these might be recommended for those already into 'challenging' music, 'Transfiguration" and 'Equilibrium' probably offer a better embarking point for listeners steeped in traditional structures." (Expose)
"Tres opportunement intitule 'A Moment of Infinity', ce disque e`st la seconde collaboration d'Artemiy Artemiev avec Phillip B. Klinger, alias PBK, obscure figure americaine de la musique industrielle des annees 80. Du haut de son vaisseau "ambient astral", le capitaine Artemiev s'adresse ici a tous les amateurs de voyages immobiles. Il les invite a un sejour en apesanteur dans des regions sonores mysterieuses, aux confins de l'ambient ethnique, de l'indus climatique et de la musique de film d'horreur. Soit une expedition tenebreuse d'une duree totale de 68 minutes decoupee en 5 longs episodes. Plus nuance que son predecesseur, cet album delaisse les rythmiques electroniques pour se tourner davantage vers des percussions d'inspiration tribale . Au sommet de leur inspiration, le Russe et l'Americain peignent une fresque sonore menacante ou sons cosmiques et bruits animaliers s'agglomerent subtilement. Ce qui, a l'arrivee, induit une oeuvre environnementale pas franchement eloignee de l'ecole isolationniste, dans la droite lignee des travaux de labels comme 'Heart of Space' et 'Projekt'." (Solenoide)
"Artemiy and Phillip B. Klingler's previous effort - 'Dreams In Moving Space' - was one of Artemiy's more abstract ventures dealing with sound explorations that slowly developed basic themes. This new release - 'A Moment of Infinity' - continues the duo's focus on sound but is a more varied and atmospheric work. It's loaded with dark spacey backdrops and percussion and a recurring theme of ghostly and sometimes anguished voices provide the bulk of the intensity. Much of the music sounds like an avant-garde soundtrack to an expedition over a cold dark and deathly quiet landscape. The mood is eerie and unfolds gradually with the focus on painting on an aural canvas. Among the highlights is 'A Rite of Passage' which is one of the wildest tracks of the set. It's something of a freakout collage of Halloween screams and yowls, electroacoustic conglomerations, avant-Chamber music, drum n bass patterns, and intense atmospherics that flows and blends beautifully. But the real gem is the epic "In a Moment of Infinity" which includes even more intense moans and howls on one of the albums more abstract works. I really enjoyed the prominent and varied percussion which infuses an element of sometimes startling chaos into this non-stop parade of dark atmospherics, drones, gongs, bells, and countless undefinable sounds. A fantastic voyage of sound that will keep you spellbound throughout it's entire 27 minute length. Don't listen to this in the dark on Halloween if you have a weak heart. Another recommended set." (Aural Innovations)
"Exploring the darkest frontiers of Ambient, these two composers show us one of the most radical aspects in their respective styles. Five electronic pieces, featuring an infinity of disquieting sounds coming and going, constitute sinister paintings, capable of making us imagine descents into caverns brimming with unearthly beings, or astral voyages beyond the limits of space or time." (Amazing Sounds)
"Artemiev and Klinger's first collab, 2000's 'Dreams in Moving Space', was a terrorizing tour-de-force and a tough act to follow. 'A Moment of Infinity' does not approach that level of intensity, but it's deeply unsettling in its own right. Ghostly moans and drones predominate, punctuated with eerie bells, metallic scrapes and other strange sounds, conjuring hordes of lost souls rising like smoke from a million graves. For reasons I can't explain, I'm also reminded of the Apathetics, memorable characters from John Boorman's bizarre 1974 sci-fi flick 'Zardoz'. If you've seen it, you'll get it, if not, just ignore my rambling; it's really beyond my powers to describe this stuff in any coherent manner. Suffice to say if weird, deep-space ambience is your bag, you'll want to hear this." (Demo Universe)
Artemiy Artemiev & PBK - "A Moment Of Infinity" CD 2002 (Electroshock)
Artemiy Artemiev & PBK - "Dreams In Moving Space" CD 2000 (Electroshock)
"The Electroshock catalogue grows stronger with each subsequent release and now represent cutting edge Electronica in their idiosyncratic, yet very singular fashion. Artemiev / Phillip B. Klingler's 'Dreams in Moving Space' is a nightmarish descent into Hell. The title, which may be mistaken for a floating almost New Age-y CD, could not be further from the reality. 'Nightmares in Moving Space' would be a more appropriate title perhaps. This CD is a disturbed, dreadful sonic passage through dreams gone askew, that of shadow-filled sound worlds. Artemiev and Klingler possess a sound dissimilar to any other artist in this field and manage to produce music that really has no particular sonic traits with which a listener may relate. This makes for a perfect premise for these ears, as loathsome as it is listening to a new CD only to feel as though given this month's version of last month's big seller. There is a distinct iciness to the sound - pictures of an unending frozen tundra one might relate to Koner's works. This is not Koner, though. Whereas Koner manages to recreate the wide-open spaces, this recording can be quite claustrophobic at times. There are essentials of 'Stalker' as well, with its dark, menacing drones, unrecognizable animal sounds, and the suspense of what awaits around the next turn. Rapoon's "Just Say faith" is another point of reference. No matter the comparisons as they are provided only to lend the reader a slight suggestion of the moods portrayed. This CD is in a territory of it's own. Set against blowing forlorn wind effects, the pealing of distant bells and a lone cello the CD begins on an ominous note, continuing on an ever-downward spiral. Music doesn't usually creep me out, yet (on first listen) I must admit to turning this one off twenty minutes in - so disturbing the sound. Thunder claps, moaning half-human cries and other sonic effects made this listener feel as though this must be what Hell sounds like. Animals gnawing at objects unseen, ripping reverberations, crackling static, hissing snakes and the ever-present crunching of footsteps - always just seconds away - lend a feeling of anxiety and trepidation to this recording. Finally, there is that 'double-edged ' approach whereas a quiet listen will provide one with a rewarding ambient experience - yet for those loud sessions there is much to unearth from the mix. Layer upon layer of fantastic sounds overlap each other, one more disconcerting then the last. This CD is perfect for Halloween or clearing your home of those pesky guests. If 'Stalker' and 'Heresy' are to your liking you will most certainly treasure this release as well. Sweet Dreams aren't made of this..." (The Raging Consciousness Desk)
"From ace Russian electronic soundsculpter and ambient artist Artemiy Artemiev (working with Phillip B. Klinger) comes what is easily one of the scariest recordings of dark ambient music I've ever heard. 'Dreams in Moving Space' will definitely be played on my outdoor speakers on Halloween for all the neighborhood kiddies to hear. Attempting to accurately describe this music would be impossible (yes, even for me). It's filled with everything from minor key swirling synthesizers, deep drones, odd synthesizer effects, post-industrial noise, dissonance, and about a million other creepy sounds. Okay, okay - you convinced me. I'll try to adequately describe this CD. Sheesh! Another thing about 'Dreams in Moving Space' is that it's long. It clocks in at over seventy-four minutes in length. You're really getting more than you bargained for here, in more ways than one. If I could afford to lose the bet, I'd wager that you can't last through the whole album in a pitch black room. 'Dreams in Moving Space. Part I' opens the CD with an eerie series of synths rising and falling over a background of spooky high-pitched keyboards, odd and reverbed rustlings and rumblings, and whistling synth textures. Kinda like being on a ghost ship in the middle of the night and it's raining outside and...well, you get the idea. It's seriously macabre music! I mean it! It's also over twenty-minutes long and lots more happens before it's over. 'Lost Souls in Bamboo Jungle' is less oppressive but is certainly just as weird. Echoed gong-like tones, sounding like glass tubes being struck, blend with heavily-echoed distorted spoken words. Industrial elements in the background and truly bizarre keyboard textures swirl and dance all around. The song inspires a strange sort of vertigo due to the way the vocals seem to come and go. At times, there is what sounds like the gurgling growl of something.. well, to use a line from the SF movie John Carpenter's 'The Thing', "Whatever it is, it's big and it's pissed off". You get a mild breather with a short five-minute song at the mid-point, 'Between People, or Within' which is an odd arrhythmic atonal soundscape with disturbing scraping noises and howling-like noises. Ya gotta hear it to understand what I'm trying to say, trust me. The album closes with the seventeen-minute 'Murmurs Across the Surface' and Part II of 'Dreams in Moving Space (Moscow Mix)' (sixteen minutes). 'Murmurs Across the Surface' is very dark ambient at its finest - terrifying, unearthly, and yet compelling at times. Synth chords that almost seem to rise and fall in tone are mixed with what sounds like the labored breathing of a giant mechanism. Crank this puppy up (it gets kinda loud at times) and watch your neighbors beat hell outta their houses. They'll probably call a priest thinking your house needs an exorcism. The relentless intensity of the song (with its occasional monstrous crashing gong reverberating like a sonic boom) will suck the joy out of you. Some really disturbing 'crunching' noises appear and I'm really glad I'm writing this review during daylight hours. Believe it or not, the CD finally does lose some of its terror on the last cut (relatively speaking). The music is still dark, but a sense of sorrowful beauty has emerged, even amidst the lower register synths, reverbed and echoed gong effects, and almost moaning sounds. What really threw me, though, was the emergence of a rapid-fire drum rhythm in the back of the mix. Counterpointing the noir elements with this "snare drum and high-hat on speed" beat is more than a little disconcerting. It's really weird to hear it so far down in the mix. The drones and synths clearly still dominate the song. Eventually, the cut starts to seriously wig out. Abrasive sounding noises (like a person making rasping noises through a respirator) mix with the synths and that crazy unchanging rhythm. It could drive you bonkers. This doesn't last and the mournful drones again take center stage. Arteimy Artemiev and Phillip B. Klinger have fashioned a nightmarish and surrealistic vision of some kind of twisted cyberscape, filled with horrific visions, unsettling images, and flat out terrifying sonic assaults. If you think you know dark ambient, think again. 'Dreams in Moving Space' makes 'Stalker' seem like 'have a nice nap' music. Whether or not you'll like it is dependent on your ability to withstand some of the most grim and unsettling music available. If nightmares scare you, I'd leave this one alone. This is a ride on a hellbound train. Just be glad you can get back by just switching your CD player off - I hope." (Wind & Wire)
"Dreams in Moving Space" and "Space Icon" extend the seemingly limitless boundaries that such electronic kosmische sound explorers as "Cluster" and early "Tangerine Dream" mapped out during the early 70s: music that has been vacuum packed and initially sounds devoid of human involvement, until the slow motion groove suddenly takes hold. We've been here before many times, but one can only admire the precision-jewelled artistry and technological skill that Artemiev, Klinger and Frohmader have employed to create these dark, shifting rumbles from deep space that sound starkly modern, but also unfathomably ancient." (The Wire)
"I don't know who Phillip B. Klingler is and an internet search turned up nothing. But this release is more an exploration of sounds than mood and imagery. The resulting atmosphere is dark and the music is similar to 'Point of Intersection' and, to a lesser degree, "Mysticism of Sound", though it lacks the intensity that I enjoyed so much on 'Mysticism...'. The themes don't vary much, the musicians setting a fixed course around which they slowly assemble their orchestra of sound. Actually this is probably the most abstract of Artemiev's recordings I've heard yet, particularly the relatively short track 'Between People, or Within', a five minute primoridial soup of spacey banging, static, and industrial sounds. Short, but to the point, and my favorite track on the disc. 'Murmurs Across the Surface' is the track that comes closest to qualifying for inclusion on 'Mysticism of Sound', another voyage into the darkest (and freakiest!) corners of space." (Aural Innovations)
"Artemiy Artemiev has been releasing for a few years now music that is always at the border of electronic and electroacoustics, both in the spirit of 'Tangerine Dream' and Francis Dhomont. From CD to CD, he is building a dreamlike world, trippy, mystical ('Mysticism of Sound'), sometimes cold (like on "Cold") and these days a lot more disquieting than usual. Because 'Dreams in Moving Space' is a lot less positive and spirited than its cousins. Is it the influence of Phillip B. Klingler (of whom I know nothing about) who collaborated on this last opus? One thing is sure, on the title track (22 minutes), one can hear disquieting sounds, eeries complaints that would be at home as the soundtrack for a haunted house ride. In 'Lost Souls in Bamboo Jungle', I had distinctly heard voices calling for help through the noises of a cybernetic jungle. Stunning. Artemiev and Klingler offer cinematic music anchored in electronics, to which they added electracoustical elements. This record is in continuity with Artemiev's previous, 'Space Icon', with Peter Frohmader, less the space pulse (except for the past track on 'Dreams...', with a more dirving beat). A deranged ambient disc with rich textures. Maybe Artemiev's best release to date. Very strongly recommended." (Delire Actuel)
"Shifting expectations again, Artemiy Artemiev has teamed up with Phillip B. Klinger for this new album, though to my untutored ears it is difficult to tell who contributes what in this collaboration. Part one of the eponymous title track is certainly dreamlike, though with its industrial sounds it seems more like a nightmare scenario. 'Lost Souls in Bamboo Jungle' has a 'Twilight Zone' feel to it: disembodied voices, distorted clock chimes, floorboard and door creakings, all over an ambient backdrop. The shortest track, 'Between People or Within', is also the most discordant and least likeable. 'Murmurs Across the Surface' continues the industrial sounds with what sounds like a distant thundering factory floating around in space. Final track is Part Two of 'Dreams in Moving Space', subtitled the Moscow Mix, more dreamy electronica drones with a touch of backbeat. I have to admit this isn't one of my favourite AA albums, it is a little too industrial sounding for my tastes, but it does have its fair share of moments." (The Borderland)
"Artemiev is currently represented by a slew of releases that are appearing every year. 'Dreams in Moving Space' sees him teaming up with American, Klingler, who normally records under the name PBK (his initials). 'Dreams... ' is a CD that I wish were a round table. How come? Because I feel I'm up against a brick wall with this kind of project. 'The Space Icon' album had me very optimistic, hungry for more thoughtful and introspective music from Artemiev. But here I was disappointed. Five super-long tracks fill the bill, but none of them seemed to get anywhere or say anything. Thick dense droning waves of grungey noise pervades half of the work, but that is a compliment compared to other parts, where it was merely noise... other spots add a bit of classicism - slightly more atmospheric and easier on the ear to be sure. But the repetitive nature of the structures, and the (intentionally?) messy demeanor of the arrangements were impenetrable for someone of my taste. Not the sort of project that I can make much sense of I am afraid to say." (Expose)
"Philip B. Klinger (aka PBK, an obscure American artist with lots of weird industrial electronics releases in the late 1980's) joins Artemiy for one of the very best of his releases yet. This is dark and spooky ambient music, a richly melodic diversion from the isolationist school, full of mysterious reverberated sounds, long synthetic tones and unusual (slightly) rhythmic structures. Only occasionally does it gain any normal focus, and when it does, the use of rhythm machine does let musical ambience down a bit, particularly on 'Dreams in Moving Space. Part II (Moscow Mix)' the album's 16 minute closer, where the rhythm has the feel as though it's coming from another room (Is someone playing a horrible techno record next-door?) and doesn't really fit in with the music. Overall though it's a rather good album." (Audion)
"The last release (so far!) is 'Dreams In Moving Space' (ELCD 014). This, again, is co-written with Artemiy and Phillip B. Klingler. Now this is more like it! The opening track, 'Dreams In Moving Space. Part I' features swirling mists of synth with a back wash of sound effects and noises that, in effect, creates a superbly evocative piece. It drifts, constantly ebbing and flowing, and the use of the odd industrial clanging and banging adds a certain gravity. Intensely eerie. 'Lost Souls in Bamboo Jungle' has eastern sounds in there, but not as many as I thought it would (especially with a title like that!). Voices echo through a bubbling, writhing synth with sliding cymbals and it all gives the feeling of one of those strange dreams that stay with you for years - again, a very strange and absorbing piece. 'Between People, or Within' is the next track. This is a somewhat more structured piece in that there's a beat that keeps coming in and out of the piece. It drips with really odd sound effects and sounds, at times, like something from Stockhausen. 'Murmurs Across the Surface' brought images straight away of 2001, why? It was a sense of isolation that the track sends out, and reminded me of the trip through the star gate, especially near the end of the journey. A swirling backwash of synth with a odd industrial clanging boom beats out whilst a string style section sings mournfully. A very touching piece. The final track is the 'Moscow Mix (Part 2)' of the title track. It's a bit more soothing and ambient, although there's still a certain something lurking, a desperate nastiness hiding in those shadows. Classic album. Best of the batch by far. Anyone wanting to find out more about any of 'Electroshock Records' may well get it from www.gamma-shop.com" (Modern Dance)
"A really interesting meeting that of these two creators of universes of sound. The American Phillip B. Klinger, better known by his artistic name PBK, started an interesting career in the musical avantgarde of the late eighties. His music, between Ambient and Minimalism, soon attracted a remarkable attention given the eminently sinister character that PBK achieved without resorting to typically bleak sound effects. That extraordinary and so unusual skills are joined in this album with the talent that Russian composer Artemiy Artemiev has to create complex, dark atmospheres of sound. Explorers of fathomless musical abysses, both artists offer us a work of electronic music of a deeply experimental nature, with passages which could be labelled within Ambient and others nearer to the structures of Concrete Music." (Amazing Sounds)
"This year (2000) wasn't exactly the best year for ambient music, though it was a good year for electro-acoustic reissues. While a lot of people were excited, including myself, about the new Biosphere, it was sadly lacking ambience in spite of techno pulsations. Even new Aube (with his impressive one-CD-a-month millennium project), Nocturnal Emissions and Yen Pox releases were lacking, or just very different. But one of the brightest lights of ambient music this year was Artemiy Artemiev's electro-acoustic collaboration with Phillip B. Klingler. A vast, musical/anti-musical panorama, proves that electro-acoustic and ambient music styles still have plenty of life left in them. Pick this up and impress Your friends by telling them that it's Russian. In a year with a number of both solo efforts and collaborations at the hands of Artemiev on his Electroshock Records label, spanning a variety of styles from a kind of Krautrock/space rock guitar work to moody electronics, this one is a subtle, unique blessing in the ambient genre, and one, I doubt, with any particular intent - save for creating dream-inspired pieces. Artemiy, son of infamous Russian electro-acoustic innovator Edward, works with a variety of sounds and techniques, using whatever he comes across that suits his needs. In this case, Artemiy and Klingler borrow elements of sci-fi film scores, folding them into new visions, while at the same time taking turns with musique concrete, electro-acoustic, ambient, and even break beats (on the 'Moscow Mix' of 'Dreams in Moving Space. Part II'). The album ventures between electro-acoustics and electronics, to create a drifting, oceanic vista of sounds, both mired in a sort of collective consciousness memory, and in a vast panoramic future. Each work pushes in surprising directions. Sparse melodies and drift and collide between affected field recordings; sounds break down to reveal silence, which is abruptly covered by drones; melody turns into drone; patterns are revealed in discordant, fractured field recordings; beats come out to direct the flow of sound in 'Dreams in Moving Space. Part II', but are in no way obtrusive. Artemiy shows that he is able to work with and expound on Krautrock styles on one album, and abandon those for an electro-acoustic style on another, all of which tends to show a number of similarities to the creations of his father, but with a unique style all his own. This is the kind of subtle ambience that is the perfect background music -involving enough to actively listen to, but texturally smooth enough to keep on behind your thoughts and ears when you're doing something else." (Supersphere)
"Five quite long compositions in this brand new collaboration. Anyway, it seems to me that the sound and the feeling coming out of them is more 'wicked' somehow, more noisy and tending to picture sinister soundscapes, with the use of samples and concrete sounds, and with the use of wide dynamic climaxes which keep the tension high for the whole length of the record. Actually, the 'spacial' side of this music has been heavily emphasised, and as the title of the compositions themselves suggest, they really seem to be transfigurations of movements, or passages in real, or mental, environments." (D.L.K.)
"Dreams" presents two long eponymous tracks (the second of which is entitled 'Moscow Mix') as well as three others of varying lengths - although the 'Moscow Mix' offsets a beat against the lowering cumulus of noise that masses behind it, this is a sombre collection of pieces on the whole, invoking the point at which one's longings turn jet black. With a hint of Eno's 'The Lost Day', and of some of Ligeti's slower pieces ('Lontano', the first movement of the Cello Concerto), coming through in the mix, it does so with an intensity, and a care for the color of sound, that makes this a wholly successful work." (Stride)
"Ambient music is magical due to the fact that it can create any mood or feeling and transport the mind to any location within the imagination. With 'Dreams in Moving Space', I expected to find myself within the limitless area dreamy space but instead had my subconscious picked clean of twisted thoughts and childhood nightmares. One of the first tests I give to ambient music is the 'sleep test'. I put it in, drift off to sleep, and see where the music guides my dreams and thoughts. At first, everything was okay. The sleepy winds of 'Dreams in Moving Space. Part I' floated from my speakers and placed me adrift on the ocean. Just as I began to enter my dream state, the music took a slight twist and I began to hear small shots of static and other weird noises placed sporadically within the music. My dreams quickly twisted and became bizarre and I forced myself to wake up and turn it off. That was a world I did not wish to enter because I needed a good nights rest. 'Dreams in Moving Space' is an album filled with this type of music. It is the soundtrack to your nightmares. With only five songs, it clocks in at an amazing 74:32 so you definitely get your money's worth. It is dreamy music, but it has been tainted and tortured with static, running water, human cries and voices, and many other sound effects. These effects give the impression that they are all under some sort of stress and cause the listener to become anxious, nervous, and finally downright frightened. Artemiy and Phillip have done a wonderful job of giving dreamy ambient music a set of claws. This is not a CD to be left alone with while locked in a pitch-black room. If you are a fan of ambient music or a writer trying to pry creepy and bizarre ideas from your brain, this is a must have. It's too easy to loop a sample over and over and call it music to sleep by but to find the right atmosphere for turning a dream into a nightmare takes true insight and talent. All music composed, arranged, performed, recorded, engineered, and mixed by Artemiy Artemiev and Phillip B. Klingler." (Satrvox)
"This CD is a collaboration between Artemiy Artemiev and Phillip B. Klingler (PBK). The music was made between September 1998 and February 2000. There's five songs in here. We open things up with "Dreams in Moving Space. Part 1". It is a sound voyage through outer worldly realms. You hear processed sounds and soft synth lines, slowly drifting away. A dreamy portrait of space indeed. On "Lost Souls in Bamboo Jungle" there's processed sounds/voice, synth with echo and reverb thrown in. A cosmic, psychedelic, meditative track. Definitely strange. On "Between People, or Within" you hear various sound sources colliding altogether. The "noisiest" piece of this album. An interesting brand of meditative cacophony. "Murmurs Across the Surface" brings a more peaceful note. A near-ambient song with "musique concrete" undertones. Relaxing. Then, we conclude with "Dreams of Moving Space. Part 2 (Moscow Mix)": synth mixed with some percussions. It is soft ambient music of cosmic proportions. Simply marvelous!!! An amazing release, no doubt." (Mastock)
"A collaborative CD with mostly excellent results from Artemiy Artemiev and PBK. Part I of the title track is moody dark ambient music which creates an atmosphere of entrapment inside an underwater craft whilst surrounded by falling debris. The despair of the situation is superbly installed into the thoughts by the slow moving, foreboding drones and submerged icy cold sounds. A formidable piece of music. Part II (Moscow Mix) of this track adds a rhythmic beat to the suspense. Quite frankly it distracts and overpowers the track. "Lost Souls in Bamboo Jungle" is rhythmic dark ambience with shadowy sounds and resonating voices. A marvelous piece of music that gives the impression that the voices are in a state of distress, crying out for help. "Between People, or Within" is a short piece of rhythmic, dark, abstract noises. A non-eventful, mediocre piece of music. "Murmurs Across the Surface" takes the listener into the pandemonic abyss. A sinister, awe-inspiring, unearthly masterpiece. Overall this collaboration gives the listener over 50 minutes of excellent, captivating, dark, ambient electronics. I think that deserves a recommendation." (Lockjaw)
"Artemiy Artemiev did not pop up yesterday or a week ago but has worked hard for his position for many years and even being the son of Edward Artemiev, a renowned pioneer of electronica in the former USSR did not make it much easier for him. Many of the things that come from Russia, be it works of technology or works of culture, tend to be underrated and looked down upon by the self-important West and this also seems to be so with Artemiev's music, quite undeservedly, though. The two albums in question are the fruit of collaboration of Artemiev with Frohmader and Klingler and both are evident that we have to do with composers of a remarkably high order. They are hard to be slotted into a single, narrow pigeon-hole and to be juxtaposed with somebody else's works for the purpose of comparison, which reviewers are so fond of. Nonetheless, some words need to be found to ring but a vague bell as regards to what the compositions are about, and the very first term that comes to mind while listening to "Dreams" is "isolationism", which denotes a score to films that are being shot within our minds. The effect is much similar to that of Lustmord's compositions but here the range of means applied is more varied. Artemiev and Klingler are more dynamic, the aural landscape with dark undercurrents flows and ebbs away. "Space Icon" sounds more relaxed and as if "human" - it is occasionally interwoven with beats and the first track is dominated by guitar but the ubiquitous void and lethal coldness of Space do not let themselves be forgotten. Very recommended, albeit might prove difficult to obtain." (ERP)
"Overwhelming feelings of fear and foreboding suffuse the first collaboration between Russian electroacoustic composer Artemiy Artemiev and the American sound collagist Phillip B. Klinger, a/k/a PBK. This is an uncomfortable, deeply weird disc, even more out-there than Artemiev's previous release, the abundantly strange "Mysticism of Sound". Egged on by PBK, whose circle of fiends includes "The Swans" and other practioners of black arts, Artemiev moves further towards anti-music than ever before. "Between People, or Within", a burnt-boneyard of smeared, razored sound, is parsecs away from the lush, formalistic grooves of 1993's "The Warning". Although more melodic, "Murmurs Across the Surface" is nevertheless a waking nightmare, a procession of terror urged by distant, alien drums. And for you club kids, the breakbeat-infected "Moscow Mix" reprise of the title track will surely harsh your mellow. Rave on, you crazy diamond! The textures of this record are remarkable; there are moments when the music seems to melt, rust and crack open. Hard to describe, even on drugs. You've just got to hear it. Hailed as a triumph by the sort of folks who never discuss music at their day jobs, "Dreams In Moving Space" left me stunned and speechless." (Demo Universe)
PBK - "Macrophage/The Toil And The Reap" CD 1992 (ND)
Macrophage combines stormy walls of sound with muffled rhythms; sounding at one point like a mechanized torture chamber filled with horses trotting around, but The Toil and the Reap is more conventional, mixing dangerous ambience with insistent electronics. (EST)
Dense, ambient noise wash compositions that gush into white noise territory on currents of searing Learjet backblast and automated cinderblock factory malfunction. Falling asleep to this is challenging, though the Toil portion, from an older recording session, seeps into spacier territory--particularly "Beckoning", a collaboration with Belgian electronic composer Vidna Obmana. Ominous and complex music, packaged in a beautifully-designed cardstock sleeve with raised, embossed design on the front cover. (Reign Of Toads)
Government Alpha/PBK - "Auditory Hallucination Of Drowsy Afternoon" CD 2007 (Xerxes)
"Govt. Alpha and PBK utilise every weapon available in their respective considerable arsenals, distorting, twisting, abusing, transmuting, fragmenting, rending, torturing, compressing, flaying, and finally leaving the ragged remains for dead, lying in a pool of blood, piss and excrement; pulling out the sound of those squealing, screeching microseconds before impact and stretching it past anything it was ever meant to endure. This is a battery of intense magnitude and constancy, never letting up, never allowing for however brief a time any form of respite or relief, it just keeps coming on relentlessly and determinedly. Finally we have the closing track, ‘Fuscous Sun’, almost a mirror image of the opener, time and the temporal membranes de-shattering to mend themselves and restore the rule of reality, albeit a fractured one, full of hurt, pain and devastation, a reality unlooked-for. As I have often said, the best music, of whatever colour, has the capacity to inspire, to conjure images and to spark off mental chain-reactions. As fanciful (or as some would say irrelevant) as the foregoing might appear, nevertheless this is what ripped through my mind as I was listening to it. Whatever the original intentions of the creators may have been, I can unequivocally attest to the power and might of this fine collaborative effort, bringing with it the hope that these two might venture to grace us with more of their nuclear vision sometime in the future." (Heathen Harvest)
PBK - "Shadows Of Prophecy/In His Throes" CD 1994 (ND)
"I was quite surprised to learn that this isn’t a recent release; in fact this was the second release of PBK’s music on the Texan ND label in 1994. Although he describes this album on his website as uncompromising, it seems to be more in the vein of abstracted, disarticulated and deconstructed noise, along with ripples and sharp scattershot explosions, and not the unimaginative senses-nullifying jet-engine blast that I initially thought it would be. No indeed, here we have some very cleverly constructed tapestries and tableaux of freezing cold malignity and purgatorial heat – one imagines that Torquemada would have been quite at home here. Klingsler hasn’t just edited sounds together haphazardly; there’s an unnervingly calculated feeling about this, guaranteed to elicit deep despair, revulsion, biliousness and disquiet on every level.
This CD isn’t, as initial impressions would indicate, two separate albums put onto one disc – in actuality it’s one single piece divided into two movements, which are further subdivided into seven and six tracks respectively. Unlike many noise artists PBK isn’t afraid of roping in hints of other genres in order to perfectly encapsulate his vision; we have swatches of dark ambient (for instance the grind of wheels and milling voices of ‘Fly and Cross’), Eno-esque ambience mixed with disembodied screech and pattering (‘Open the Circle’), the looped musique-concrète of ‘Wind-licked Flames’, the monolithic engine aesthetic of ‘The System’, the glacial ambient crackling of ‘Mind Inflamed’ and the minimalist poppings and cracker detonations of torment. His sheer range exemplifies the utter craftsmanship with which he has put this together – moreover there’s a natural intelligence at work here that some would consider to be bordering on supernatural intuition, every element falls easily into its allotted place and every sound is well-chosen for its ability to summon forth the correct atmosphere and ambience.
Above all what you come away with from this is deep and unutterable isolation, an existence where pain, sorrow and paranoia are everyday companions – there is no light here, in fact there never has been light and there never will be either. This is a vision of the deepest and most unpleasant level of Hell, where the greatest punishment is not consignment to the flames but sentenced to an eternity of abject and cold loneliness; and not just physical loneliness but complete spiritual separation and isolation, a dark place where one’s soul could wander for all time and still not meet another. This is the greatest fear of the living, that we will live and die without the essential contact of others like us; how much more keenly is it felt by those restless ghosts whose earthly bodies have left the source of warmth and solace. Furthermore, if there is any promise that’s been made here, it is that this is the destination for us all, saint and sinner alike, and that no matter how much praying and gnashing of teeth is performed, nothing’s going to change, so get used to it. Freezingly cold and deeply pessimistic and more to the point uncompromisingly so, just like the man said.... and that’s exactly how I like it." (Heathen Harvest)
PBK - "Retro" 3CD Boxset 2006 (Waystyx)
This is a beautiful package of some of PBK's early cassette works recorded between 1987 and 1991, during his days as a California resident. Three audio CDs are housed in a black ink on heavy black stock wallet-pack with a fourth unlistenable disk, completing the symmetry of the package, that contains printed information on one side and some vintage collaged artwork on the other. Phillip B. Klinger was a contemporary of mine back in the cassette underground heyday and, although I don't ever recall actually corresponding with him, I eded up with one of his tapes and believe we shared company on a few compilation releases. I'm glad to discover that he's still at it, now relocated to Michigan, and that there's enough interest in the old music to warrant this gorgeous release in an issue of 264 hand-numbered copies.
The first disk collects tracks from several releases and was compiled and remastered by Klinger's pal and occasional collaborator Vidna Obmana (aka Dirk Serries) in Belgium back in 1994. For the PBK completists out there this may be something of a disappointment, but I'm pretty sure there are reissues of 'A Noise Supreme' and some of the these other early works floating around somewhere in various forms (if not the originals). 'The Music Of Her Sleep' slowly rises to the surface with pulsating subtelty. It maintains a sense of disquieting comfort within its meditative tension, indeed a perfect paradox amongst such active stasis. In other words, a nice layering of loops that make for nine minutes of some very engaging listening. The second track is even more ambient and has a slightly creepy quality due to the FM synthesis and grainy analogue loops. The best part is when a bit of rhythmic interplay takes place around four minutes in and evokes the mood of a dimly-lit night spent in solitaire by a cool river. 'Innocence' has some processed voice, presumably a child's, as its focal point for this vignette. Nothing much really happens in this reverberated piece, but it serves its purpose as a bridge to the next track quite nicely. The first number from 'Thrill Pictures' is a loopy psychedelic one with a wobbly persona that any self-respecting tapehead should hear.
'Narcosis 1' evokes a more sedate state as the title aptly indicates, but should have been stretched out much more and could have become a drone masterpiece. The sixth track is five minutes of lovely metallic swelling and contracting, but loses some meaning out of it's original context. The second 'Narcosis' track gets really interesting about two minutes in when it breaks free of the noise loop and percolates its way into near silence. The synthesized metal percussive sounds that that emerge are like a breath of fresh air and create an actual melody of sorts until another burst of abstract noise takes over and, despite the superfluous sweeping VCO, makes for an outstanding piece. The next two 'Thrill Pictures' excerpts are are exquisite examples of what I consider to be excellent electronic music produced outside the field of academia. Yes, I'm a sucker for ambient music with psycho-acoustic properties and this work is deep and damn near flawless. I want the whole freaking recording! The tenth track keeps the drone flame burning with the addition of some rather menacing processed voice and a choice ending. The last piece on the disk is from 'Thrill Pictures' and shimmers most beautifully even amongst the fractured vocal track, which is a work of art unto itself. All in all, this is great music presented in a less than stellar fashion, perhaps due to Dirk's mixtape mindset? In my humble opinion, a really creative blend of this material would work less with fade-ins and fade-outs and would concentrate on having the sounds blend more organically as a single work. It's a minor complaint as this stuff sounds even better some twenty years later.
'Asesino' was recorded in 1988 and bursts out of the gate with a blast of torrential audio that's not devoid of any dramatic action. The music is generally harsh but has enough subtle intricacies that defy being catagorised as mere noise. The first of these seven untitled pieces consists of seven minutes of disciplined analogue noise control, whereas the second one challenges the upper-spectrum of your auditory perceptive abilities. The loop that comes to characterize the track has a razor-blade-through-the speaker-cone quality that kept me engaged without ever tiring. In fact, it assumed an almost meditative quality until the eruption that takes place just after the six minute mark which provides a hefty jolt, but manges to still remaining interesting until its premature fade-out two minutes later. The third one settles into droney dark territory with a shiny plate-reverb sheen that teasingly teeters on the edge of total feedback hell until saved by the percussive sounds that enter towards the ending. This is a remarkable work of ambient eeriness recorded long before drone was considered a genre of everyday music-making.
Track four brings the noise back to the front, but with a rhythmic twist in an almost minimalist way. A loop is processed to the point that the generative element is usurped by its subsequent treatments and the original figure is tranformed and obscured into a entirely new entity. Damn lovely this is. The fifth number includes some source material from the ubiquitous sound-art reconfigurationist Zan Hoffman who is, fortunately, also still as active as ever. There's a cranky mid-to-low foundation accompanied by what sounds like manual tape manipulation and some sloppy synth-work. While it's still an engaging piece, it pales in comparison to tha acute focus of the others up to this point. Track six highlights some other-worldy flanged circuits boiled in hot oil while the uninvited guests laugh with their nefarious thoughts and intentions as they hasten their way out of the party to save their silly asses, but alas the circuits have the last laugh as the alien noise dissipates into a haze of chopped fragments. Lucky bastards. The concluding eight-plus minutes of 'Asesino' may be very well the best yet. Warm drones and fuzzy loops give way to some garden variety frequency-modulation for a brief appearance. When things quiet down about halfway through, it makes sense and seems like a logical ending. Nope; time for a coda of delicate sound that progresses from ambient to noisy psychedelia and right back home again. This was, and still is, a brilliant release. I wish 10% of contemporary noise releases sounded this good.
The third disk in this collection also dates from 1988 and consists of the release 'Die Brucke' and a bonus track. Despite its title, track one is not a cover of the SPK classic of the same name, but still kicks off noisy and percussive. In fact it somewhat conjures the spirit of that group's work circa 1981. If you don't know what I'm talking about then go find copies of 'Leichenschrei'(sp?) or the singles collection 'Auto-Da-Fe.' There's a saxophone or similar timbre that comes to the surface every now and then to charming effect and contrasts nicely with the otherwise bleak industrial landscape. Just as the piece begins to wear out it's welcome, which it does, it ends at just over eleven minutes. 'Sturm' is the German word for storm if you didn't already know and what a torrent of a track this is. Waves envelop and swell around the head in an almost hypnotic series of relatively simple patterns. Subtle alterations occur along the way but the piece is otherwise an exercise in active stasis, dare I say, Feldman-esque. The last minute or so rests comfortably on some high-frequency dancing that may not be so good for your ears, but does my body good at any rate. The title track is much shorter and more of a sombre drone based on a catchy but dissonant looped simple melody a la early Swans without the pounding drums. There's a palpable tension here with menacing oscillations and potentially threatening feedback lurking in the wings. Very powerful piece that could have been much longer in my book, but I'm assuming it was the end of the original cassette's first side. 'Cannibale' wells up from a very dark place where distressed voices are back-masked on tape to either obscure or enhance their unpleasant confessions. Only two minutes in something wonderful and unexpected happens in the form the sudden absence of all but small sounds. Very tastefully placed, it doesn't last long and the piece re-emerges as some sort of insectoid alien with an asthmatic condition assuming vocal duties and the reed work from 'Mekano.' It may sound cliche, but it's almost Kafka-esque and there's certainly some un-natural metamorphosis going on here. Intense track at any rate.
'Winter Land' evokes some frigid imagery, or more like the physical sensation of the piercing wind off of Lake Michigan in the dead of the season. That experience alone will make your ears ring mercilessly. This one is a little less engaging of a listen but certainly challenging. The drone element is in place and the plate reverb is in full effect, but it just doesn't do that much for me. The last five minutes take a nice turn by reducing everything to some sparse processed sonics, but are ultimately dull compared to what I know this cat is capable of. Ditto for the last track of the original 'Die Brucke' release. It's a mere six minute analogue noise fest unto itself that's based over a rather uninspired loop. There's nothing wrong with it, but it feels like the record's running out of steam. The bonus track, 'Shamanistic' is an eighteen minute sporadic workout with some rhythmically redeeming actions that have yet to be explored in this collection. Synth bubbles percolate around the periphery of nightmarish drones and a somewhat sloppy mix. Six minutes in, a nice shiny landscape surfaces that should have set the pace from the get-go. Pretty music that never really gets the chance to have its say, or is that the point? This feels less like Southern California than it does spending a quiet evening along the East River on the Kings/Queens county border carrying on an endless coversation with one's self. That's not a bad thing, but this track comes across as a composite mix of several pieces. That's only a drag because there are some great elements within that could stand to be developed further.
Young ones, get it together and learn yourself good, because some of the best experimental noise recordings that I've heard lately are around twenty years old. The attention to detail and overall sonic awareness that characterize PBK's work is nearly impeccable. Yes there are sloppy moments and the occasional negligible track, but I can't help but feel that the world is a better place with this material back in circulation. Sure he wasn't cutting up tiny bits of tape for months on end, but it's not like he had a laptop either. Study your history kids, this stuff matters. (Heathen Harvest)
PBK - "Narcosis" Cassette 1990 (PBK Recordings)
"Packed with a hand-painted cloth inlay, this latest release by PBK continues his exploration of, ummm, noise. Flowing, churning, developing abstract noise textures. I've no idea how they were created or manipulated: they possess an authentic identity of their own somewhere between electronic, mechanical and environmental noise. PBK's aim is to use this unpromising material to reeducate our ears, show us that noise really is nice. His music has ranged in the past from the musical to the unlistenable, but this cassette is neither: it really does stand on its own merits, as a new listening experience. Post-apocalypse ambient atmospheres." (EST)
PBK & Telepherique - "Noise-Ambient Connection" CD 2008 (Monochrome Vision)
"This joining of forces of the American sound painter PBK and veteran German experimental group Telepherique here encompasses a fertile creative ground, and is titled more than appropriately, being a playful mesh of softly textural, bizarre and sometimes playful sound compositions. It all begins with the oddly surreal 'Twilight Cue', which sounds like an electro-acoustic collage with samples and recordings of raw metal and primitive percussions (though perhaps more ambient than that description implies). 'In Ecosystem Interrupt' is a mysterious set of sounds that evoke a dramatic cinematic scene in a plastic baggie factory (with strings)...on vinyl! 'My Rare Dreams (Of The Future)' is a more structured, rhythmic mix of atmospheric guitars/bass and skittering, looping sounds, like an old 4AD band being mixed by Stefan Betke/Pole. 'You Only Fade' soundtracks a late-night haunting in a factory, through a pixel haze, whereas 'Seen Through Cloud Cover' closes it out with a spacious ambience. Overall, a heady and quirkily pleasing collision of sounds and abstracted textures." (Goatsden)
"You most likely do not need a history lesson in the trades PBK, Phillip B. Klinger, and Telepherique, Klaus Jochim et al, but if resume perusal is requirement to employment you’ll find the inner liner notes’ publicity rap on both acts taken from the CD booklet paragraphed within the internet loquaciously (should you do require a background, please follow aforementioned instructions). This, however, is not a split album but a union of two into one that deserves its own space: they have, after all, entitled the album with that in mind.
All the tracks are skewed heavily with eschatological and societal ideation, each nesting poignant subtitle in sentence, from the curtain call of ‘Twilight Cue – The Beginning of an Ending’ to withering query of ‘Sun Continue to Shine – How much longer will the solar energy remain a constant and feed the planet? – a prayer’, libates a future fallen and failed, expressed in word. How ironic then, that it is by the product of oil that both artists illume their ecologically introspective sound.
Sheeted steel screams as they sharpen together, gleaming whips stabbing and shearing. The attacks are random in, The Beginning... (Twilight Cue), where oscillations of sampled cyclic machinery are gutted and howl strange frequencies and rattling gears groan, creak and tense. The palpable pressure expressed in the album, whose most harsh and unrelenting tragedy was finalised before the first track began with the predilection of subsidence of survival – ours and all else, is taught and chaotic. Flickering tones are struck with steel, some force or wind sans life the only animastic force causing such collision. Delving into a planetary disaster with the reversal of the poles, the second track continues in a rich bubble of noise and ambience evoked in the first play, swelling with organic tones and twitching just-around-the-corner malfunctions: haunting visions of violent lifelessness of mechanical repetition.
There are seismic changes in the presentation of disaster outlined in the track titles and subtitles. Static squeals accompaniment to shivering bird calls, tortured bicycles screeching like tortured banshees while electronic saccade splutters oblivious. Noise and ambience abet the artists’ amalgamation without excelling or smothering each other, allowing for carefully delineated segments of space between the fused. The interplay, which perhaps an artist of either camp who stubbornly sees no space tween, is one of chiaroscuro.
Menace and darkness are portrayed, but less as a necessity and more a by-product of what is being evinced, aural statements of ecological disasters, which in today’s day and climate are hardly menacing or dark enough. It is little wonder that such a future and such music treads a lonely path of absence of life save its echoes.
The album is a limited edition of 500 disc jewel-case and nothing particularly aesthetically inspiring. A simple and glossy four-page black-on0white booklet is detailed with minimal design angular and ovular." (Heathen Harvest)
PBK - "Life-Sense Revoked" CD 1996 (Lunhare)
"There are creations in art history, which can‘t be rated by time. Such is creation by PBK (Phillip B. Klingler) and his album 'Life-Sense Revoked', created in the end of last century. The listener can‘t know anything about artist‘s biography, about context of this album, but can feel timeless ideas. It is experimental and ageless work of it‘s special abstract noisy ground of sound and conceptual point of theme.
Tracks are various, not so similar, every has individual melody, sounds and touch with artist‘s inner goals. All of them express dark world of human being, but some of them are more in good mood, some – in more dark. Names of tracks, like of album, remind dadaistic play with words and meanings. For example, 'Beauty's Punishment'. Short, but catching song about beauty and it‘s other dark side. Another similar song is 'Courage Collage'. Idea of this work, like of all album, can be interpreted in many meanings - just playing with words and musical sounds or it is more deeply or both at the same time. In these two songs dominates memorable woman voice, which captures the attention and sounds pleasantly. These tracks remind view of perfomance‘s aesthetics. More different are other tracks with more noisy sounds. Two tracks about 'State Of Flux' make feel this state, but this process is not even hard and uncomfortable. The first version is more tender of sounds, the second has more strident noises, like good and bad side of flux. About similar process of moving is 'Nekritskan Encapsulate', 'Shimmering Substance' songs. The names of tracks help to imagine these processes more clearly.
More ambient songs are 'Crime Of Trespass', 'To Wish, To Contradict', 'Outside Of Time' and 'Cabalistic Personage'. In their dominates steady melody with some noisy sounds. Similar is and the first song 'Thugadeno', but with more noisy steady melody and harsh noises. This song is extented in the last and the longest song 'Cabalistic Personage', which maybe summarizes all tracks in one progressive deep noise ambient and tree of life meaning.
'Life-Sense Revoked' name can be interpreted and named like one of successful ventures to represent what is not visible by eyes in last life of art, but live and important in nowadays. There can be mentioned felicitous words of Joseph Beuys (German conceptualist artist): 'I didn‘t care to appeal to logic, I care to open all traces in subliminal mind and to make them mix by form of chaotic process, for everything, which is new, the beginning is always chaotic'." (Heathen Harvest)
"More excellent abstracted sound sculptures from this amazing artist, including some collaborative pieces with Jarboe, Hands To, AMK, and Brian Ladd. Some truly unique and varied sonic textures here, easily transcending the boundaries between experimental noise and soundtrack styles." (Godsend)
PBK/C. Reider - "Discorporate" CDR 2009 (Impulsy Stetoskopu)
"Ten years (off and on) in the making, this 7-track, 46-minute collaboration between drone composer C. Reider and abstractionist PBK is a curious and immersive set of noisy, textured, alien soundscapes, with a very proto-industrial feel. Beginning with the befuddling, loopily surreal opener (we'll call it 'Track 1'), the album gels into a far-out set of abstracted sounds, textures, and sound collages. Track 4 is a densely-collaged mass of squelch and what sounds like manipulated and layered field recordings. Track 5 is more woozy, like waking up from a horrible anesthesia experience with your head spinning and throbbing. Track 7 wakes from the dream to a lilting, ambient journey at the beach, complete with what seems like distant waves and seagulls (or was I imagining that? Didn't hear it the second time through). It's a fitting conclusion to an otherwise disorienting journey, and a marvelous one, at that." (Goatsden)
"This collaboration was made over the course of ten years when PBK sent sound material to C. Reider, but it was until earlier this year when things were finally completed, much to PBK's surprise. He calls this '21st century psychedelic drone space music', which I may not agree with, entirely. Yes, its sure psychedelic, drone based space music, but its not music that was 'invented' in this century. This kind of spacious, long form drone ambient with post industrial elements existed as easily in the 80s when the likes of PBK (and Hands To, although usually much shorter) released works on cassette, the forerunner of the do it yourself medium that CDR and MP3 are these days. Having said, there is nothing wrong with the actual music. Some of the processes applied to the sounds of PBK operate in the realms of digitalia, without being microsound. Everything is placed together and it makes a thick, densely formed mass of sound, perhaps what PBK calls psychedelic. Not entirely 'new' music, but a fine, sturdy exercise in experimental sound." (Vital Weekly)