AMN Reviews: David Lee Myers / Sonologyst / Lars Bröndum – Unus et Trinus (2024; Unexplained Sounds Group)

Unus et Trinus (one and three) is an aptly titled release from collaborators Myers, Sonologyst (Raffaele Pezzella), and Bröndum. All are well-established sound artists, with Myers having a legacy of several decades. This offering features a 20-minute trio piece as well as a pair of shorter solo works from each artist.

On the trio effort, Myers, Pezzella, and Bröndum begin with a quietly lilting soundscape riddled with bells, effects, and a voiceover. Watery electronics follow with other kosmiche sounds. This evolves into grittier textures accompanied by drones and disjointed synth melodies, as well as quiet passages with haunting percussion. There is a certain spatial character to this track, as if it was the result of a walk through a shifting sonic environment.

The two Myers contributions are in the musique concrete vein, almost industrial in nature. But Myers adds a human element with his manipulations and twiddling. There is an improvisational randomness to this approach not unlike his early influence, Tod Dockstader.

As Sonologyst, Pezzella’s pieces employ oscillations, echoes, textured drones, and sculpted static. Less aleatoric than Myers, Pellezza also explores a darker space that evokes machinery following a pre-established logic that does not consider the outcome of its acts.

Bröndum’s heavy and granular drones are coarse and discordant, accompanied by subtle percussion. Other passages are comprised of a busy soup of electronics. The result is cinematic yet mildly distributing – a representation of states and events that lead one or question the veracity of their senses or underyling reality itself.

Unus et Trinus was released on February 29 by the Unexplained Sounds Group.