It’s already dark and already cold. On my way home I bundle up, wrap my ears in headphones, and cover my head with a hood. Wind is trying to penetrate my sonic shell, but I got a stronger wind inside. Jannick Schou creates torrents of sound capable of silencing the gust. A strong tempest is growing inside my head, ripping through torn speaker cones, ear plugs and wires. The sky opens up, and in its centre noise becomes silence, as everything muffles and drowns. Sound turns light into a dizzying array of speckled frequencies. And I fall…
This onslaught of over-driven guitar, passed through distortion and a chain of pedals creates an overwhelming feeling. What’s interesting about the act of listening to the Act of Shimmering is that it jabs you awake, forcing you to stay in the present, focusing on time, mind and sound. There’s just so much of it you can’t slip away. Everything else disappears and you are left… as you are…
The Act of Shimmering is the act of leaving conscious thought behind. It’s accepting what lies beyond the corporeal, transcending the physical; the soul is aware and the body, eyes, skin are distant empty casings. A clamorous, chaotic cacophony surrounds a beatific centre.
Jannick Schou is a Denmark based experimental artist, sound sculptor, and a “proprietor of tape loop drone”. Act Of Shimmering is his first full length album released by a label (and at a limited 300 vinyl only pressing at that!) by Experimedia. His previous self released digital only albums include When Life Mirrors Itself and Against A Backdrop Of Blue Hills, They Were As Beautiful As A Lullaby which later got picked up by Dead Pilot Records. Schou also put a few EPs out on Rural Colours, Under The Spire and Heat Death Records.
Schou’s music consists of “tape-drone-tracks” which are incredibly noisy, sometimes eerie, and even elating. Like a head cleaner, the sounds erase all vile thought leaving your mind free from the imagined stress, and finally relax. Not for the faint-hearted, but recommended if you can stand the storm of noise. Happy travelling…
