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S S S S – Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes – Vinyl LP 180g
Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes is the third release of the Swiss producer and sound artist Samuel Savenberg alias S S S S for the Lucerne-based Hallow Ground label. The multi-channel sound work is the result of a two-week-long artist residency at Lucerne’s Südpol in the summer of 2015, which in addition to its premiere in December 2015 has been presented live at Dampfzentrale Bern and London’s Café Oto.
Originally briefly available as a small-run cassette release through the Italian Haunter imprint, Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes has been carefully mastered for a vinyl issue by none other than Room40 founder Lawrence English.
During his residency, Savenberg explored the sonic environment of Südpol, doing field recordings around the building or recording pianos and even another resident, an actor whose fragmented and distorted voice can be heard throughout the two parts that make up Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes. While this particular work does not necessarily explore a theoretical framework like Savenberg’s previous releases under his S S S S moniker, it is not to be understood as an experimental piece, but rather an extension of his singular approach to electronic composition. Much like on his 2014 debut EP Administration Of Fear or the following year’s LP Autopoiesis, S S S S crafts a dense atmosphere on Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes, which takes its name from a Manic Street Preachers line after Savenberg’s brief and somewhat inexplicable obsession with the Welsh band’s presumably deceased guitarist Richey Edwards. However, Savenberg also explores other sides of his varied musical interests which have brought him from being a member of the local Hardcore scene to producing music with and for the Wave band Die Selektion or even venturing into Pop territory.
Having been written specifically with a multi-channel performance in mind, Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes creates and explores its own space in shortly over 28 minutes, moving slowly from crisp white noise to elegiac textures and throbbing, bass-heavy rhythms before the faint sounds of a piano diffuse into the aether. It’s an allusive piece of work that allows itself to be carried away and yet never loses its focus. Far from being a mere experiment, Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes is a composition which is as open as it is coherent.
(Kristoffer Patrick Cornils)
Tracklist:
1A) Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes, Part I (14:29)
1B) Just Dead Stars For Dead Eyes, Part II (13:33)
Credits:
All tracks composed, played and mixed by S S S S
Cut by CentralDubs, Berne
Vinyl mastering by Lawrence English
Design by Ruth Stofer
Vinyl/digital release via Hallow Ground 2017
Distributed by A-Musik and Cargo Records