Review: Pink Room + SEPL – Transition

NOISEFABRIK.

It’s not clear what this transition falls between. With the release being recorded by Thierry Arnal and Sophie Jeannin under lockdown, it’s potentially a reflection on our global adjustment to the pandemic, as the pre-virus world shrinks into the rear-view and the world after exists as an ever-dwindling glint. Poignantly then, this 30-minute synthesiser collage is all transition. Notions of “before” and “after” are null. The adjustment is never complete. Each moment is aglow with both the incineration of the old and the alchemical assembly of the new, as the duo render their fizzing, sweeping textures in the erratic colours and movements of chaos and potential. There’s always another drone starting to rouse itself from the bed of hums; always a gargle of static starting to disintegrate. Mutation and decay are in constant interaction. Each player clasps at the vanishing gestures of the other, responding to a statement already departed, with every sound like sand slipping between fingers. Muffled arpeggiations wilt within sheets of digital feedback, which then melt to reveal lonely theremin songs, which slip beneath cracked bass frequencies. It’s an utter commotion from start to finish – listener attention manifests not as a laser-focus on anything in particular, but with the broad illumination of a naked bulb. The mind is tugged toward the destruction and manifestation occurring everywhere at once. This loud, omnipresent state of uncertainty feels terrifyingly perfect.