Released
unreleased

Label
-

Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund

Visit

Lilith

DEMO MATERIAL
1996-7

Track Listing

A Side:
1. Youth (Naked Snake)
2. Waiting (Devils Tail)
3. Strength in Peril
4. Humility
5. Harmony: sess aeme

B Side (Live):
1. Double Door/Chicago 1996
2. ESP Convention/Normal 1997

          Centered around Scott Gibbons, Lilith is a Chicago-based experimental-synthetica band. Since the mid-80s Lilith has produced a number of cassettes, contributed to various compilations, and released three CDs on the prestigious Belgian label -- Sub Rosa. The instruments employed span the spectrum of musical possibility: voices, conventional instruments of western and more exotic origin, synthesizers (some of them rebuilt by Gibbons to react to light intensity and movement), as well as found sounds. All of these elements are often further manipulated, processed and cut-up. In most cases the music is created to explore ideas or concepts. The CD Stone (1992), for example, consists entirely of the sampling and orchestration of sounds generated by manipulating stones, rocks and pebbles; Orgaize from 1994 takes its departure in writings and speeches by Aleisteir Crowley; and, the aural possibilities of sexual stimulation constitute the basis for Redwing (1995).
         The demo sent to Last Sigh by Lilith features material for two forthcoming releases: A Dangling Heaven and a Live CD compiling recordings from the ESP Convention in Normal, Illinois, the ARS Festival in Linz, Austria (both 1997), and the Double Door in Chicago (1996).

          "Each track [on A Dangling Heaven] explores the first 16 possible 'arrangements' of the I CHING, although the I CHING was not used as a compositional tool[,]" Gibbons explains in the accompanying press release, however, he does not consider it a concept album as such, rather -- due to the more conventional duration and instrumentation of the individual tracks -- Gibbons refers to A Dangling Heaven as Lilith's "pop album." "Pop" or not; "conventional" in format or not; the five tracks featured on the demo are a very promising handful of compositions. The sound-picture is multi-layered with an abundance of intriguing and beautiful details that sometimes appear for only a brief moment before disappearing, and at other times linger, mutating into prominent presences. Great emphasis is placed on percussion, but each rhythm is unique in quality and time, and often evolves and develops, never allowing a composition to sink into any predictable pattern. The individual tracks are unique and quite varied in execution and atmosphere, without ever losing Lilith's signature in the process -- each track bears the impression of relating a particular experience or mood to the listener, but the experiences and emotions are always recognisable as Lilith's.
          The first track on the tape -- "youth (naked snake)" -- plays like a visit to the set of a deserted horror/sci-fi movie on a rainy evening. A variety of deep, pulsating rhythms, tin roof tapping, and occasional crashings and slams are interrupted by the grinding sound of robotics gone haywire and various other brief metallic heaves and screeches. The ghostly voice of a woman appears and disappears, echoing away amongst the sonic bric-a-brac.
          Rolling congas, rattling sounds, crisp tinkles, and an eastern flute playfully intermingle on "waiting (devils tail)." A cut-up male voice briefly exclaims a couple of rasping sentences. Gradually, the air of tribal ritual thickens, as the deeper percussions settle into a pounding pattern, all but drowning out the mysterious musings of another female voice at the end of this piece.
          "strength in peril" takes the listener on a walk down narrow streets, facing on one side another campfire ritual, and, on the other, something like a claustrophobic scene from an animation by The Brothers Quay.
          On "humility" the impression of looking through a keyhole into a strange aural landscape is created. In the distance a piston-heartbeat beats, laser beams intermittently flash across the field of vision, gyrating harmonics rise and fall in the near distance, sonic gusts of wind pass across the scene, and a number of decaying machines gasp out archaic, electronic quips.
          The first side of the tape closes with "harmony: sess aeme," on which wind chimes softly move in the sucking synthetic tides that slowly fade-in at the beginning of the piece. The soothing lull of the pulsing electronic eddies carry the listener along into the silence at the end of the tape, but not before passing a pair of electronic locusts, exercising their vocal chords from the edge of this enticing audio stream.

          The excerpts from various live performances presented on the other side of the demo most dramatically differ from the Dangling Heaven tracks in length and in the comparatively limited use of percussion. Gibbons' self-constructed, laser-manipulated synthesizers come to the fore on these recordings, and lend a unique, otherworldly atmosphere to the music. The pieces are lengthy, and it would be a painstaking and -- to a certain extent -- futile task to document in words the landscapes of sound, through which Lilith takes us. Let it suffice to say that Lilith's music never settles into monotony, and innovatively crossbreeds a number of genres, coming out with an end result all their own