testament

various artists

rrrecords

1996 CD

play | buy

reviews

“RRR's new compilation of noise-concretions features many of the genre's top-notch exponents...”— Opprobrium

Opprobrium

RRR's new compilation of noise-concretions features many of the genre's top-notch exponents, all putting in commendable performances. As one would expect, this ain't no dance disc; sounds instead being sculpted from a boggling array of Cageian environmental and manipulated sources - Nick Peck's airport sound scapes, John Wiggins' Negativlandian cut & paste work, Jerome Noetinger (the 3" genius behind the explorative Metamkine label) and his 'Le Ballon Rouge' sounding like the testing room in a prophylactic factory. Strangely enough though, for a genre so apparently unlimited in its audio potential, it is ultimately astounding how similar in approach many of these pieces sound, even when gleaned from vastly different sources and techniques. In fact it is often difficult to tell when one artist's contribution ends and another's begins. The sheer abstraction of the work belies any real trace of the creator, and thereby leaves Testament sound like the work of one 10-headed, globe-spanning musique-concrete-layer. —Tim