Where Sunn O))) has made a habit of pummelling their audience into submission with sheer volume and grinding inevitability, Ensemble Pearl are far less oppressive.
Ensemble Pearl seems very much about sustaining the balance between being present and passive, or using minor devices to create major effects.
Like so much drone, Ensemble Pearl takes deliberate effort and an attention to detail on the part of the listener to make it more than just unsettling elevator music. But that’s the point.
It is a singular work that offers considerable rewards for those who will engage with it on its own terms.
Ensemble Pearl floats through the form, fusing the genre’s lasting ponderousness and infinite space with something more elaborate and less confined by gravity.
Though all of this buildup of expressionist anxiety demands a steam release, Ensemble Pearl leave the pot boiling and the lid closed tight.
Just like all the best horror movies, Ensemble Pearl revels in the quieter moments in order to make the catatonic howls of pain and visceral din even more frightening.
#36 | / | The Quietus |