An appropriate coda for the URSK series on Utech, the slew of drone oriented releases from both established (Skullflower, Final) and the up and coming (Aluk Todolo, RST) ends with a new project featuring visual artist Stephen Kasner (the SK of URSK) and collaborators including Yoshiko Ohara (Bloody Panda) clashes ethereal and oppressive dynamics to maximum effectiveness.

Utech

While the prior works in this series had been largely focused on the more bleak and dark sounds, this work lets in a bit more of the light that had been otherwise obscured over time. The disc opens and closes with tracks that focus on light ambient ethereal sounds that on their own are rather beautiful, but take on an entirely different quality given the distant, haunting vocals of Ohara, sounding like a spirit channeling from other worlds.

Both “Head Found in Aptos” and “Spiritless” mix the dark vocals with heavier guitar riffs that infringe upon metal territory, but are only one part of a much more diverse compositions. The former combines heavier guitar with more ambient riffs, ending with layers of string-like textures. The latter is longer and mixes softer electronics with the deeper metal riffs, but eventually slipping away to reveal unabashedly beautiful tones to conclude the track.

The remaining tracks pull some of the darker layers away to focus on the more ethereal elements. “White Wax Blood” has subtle low frequency elements but gentle, chiming guitar notes that are much more 4AD than Southern Lord. The creepy, dissonant vocals remain, but the other elements of the track overshadow the darkness. Even the occasional dank basement from hell low end doesn’t drag the track downward. “Hemming” mixes gentle guitar strums, backward notes, and light synth work with some more obscure, sinister elements. It’s a disparate combination of sounds that manages to actually come together beautifully.

The closing “Picture of Time and Space/Out” strips everything down to simply the vocals of Ohara and some treatments of them, mixing heavily effected vocals with the pure ones, ending the album (and series) with some sense of closure, as isolated and frozen as it may sound.

Like the Arc series that preceded it, the URSK series of albums curated by Keith Utech has assembled various practitioners of dark, droning sound to wonderful effect, with the known artists doing some of their best work, while aiding in the younger folks getting a bit more attention. Stephen Kasner’s visual art that accompanied each of these releases have been the perfect metaphor as well: dark, grimy paintings, but small fragments of light escaping describes the sound of most of these albums, but this one especially. It is a haunting finish to a memorable set of albums.

Stephen Kasner is best known for his skill at oil painting. Perhaps you’ve seen some of his art, if not then check it out. There’s no question that he’s one of the foremost at what he does, and has proved very influential in the art world. He is undoubtedly amazing at what he does. But what unparalleled dark beauty he creates visually is now manifested audibly with his new project, Blood Fountains. “Floods” was released back in August on the noteworthy label, Utech Records. He had done album art for some of the other artists on the label as well. Blood Fountains, however, is the ultimate synesthetic experience. It is the perfect harmony of sound and art. The artwork is stunning and presents to the eye what the CD offers to the ear. It offers the same unparalleled quality that makes every Utech release unique. Chill on the floor and just get lost in Kasner’s own art, especially for “Floods,” while listening to the album itself. Essential experience. You won’t be the same afterwards.

If you could put your ear up against one of his paintings, a track off of “Floods” is what you would hear. It’s like patiently listening to the voice of the sea shell. Shadowy layers drift hither and thither with indecipherable female incantations via Yoshiko Ohara (Bloody Panda) that flow like a drone itself. It feels like you’re walking onto the scene of some primeval pagan ritual with a priestess softly chanting a magical formula in a foggy forest. The focus is undoubtedly fixed on the mood. When one approaches a Kasner on the wall it does something. It morphs your environment into something sinister, mysterious, and ethereal, yet strangely hopeful. It’s all about the impression. And that’s just what these six tracks do. They are a soundtrack to something completely alien…a dreamscape bordering on a nightmare that you could never quite invent. That’s the genius of Kasner in his painting and that’s also the genius of Blood Fountains. It’s hard to think that someone less than divine could knit such an intangible aesthetic creature together and contain it on a canvas, or in this case, a compact disc. Now through the end of the year you can score this disc at the unbelievable price of only $10.00 at Utech’s site. Don’t miss this one! 9/10

— Dave Miller

VERY LIMITED QUANTITIES.

Stephen Kasner / Blood Fountains Sale Packages

Package I contains:

• Blood Fountains CD – FLOODS
• Blood Fountains T-Shirt

PRICE: $20 (a $6 Savings)

CLICK HERE FOR PACKAGE I

Package II contains:

• Blood Fountains CD – FLOODS
• Blood Fountains T-Shirt
• Stephen Kasner WORKS: 1993 – 2006 – Softcover version

PRICE: $45 (an $11 Savings)

CLICK HERE FOR PACKAGE II

You can buy the album here.

Blood Fountain T-Shirts are available in the STORE.

There is no beginning, there is no end, only perpetual oscillation between experience, memory and gravity. Emotion propels our lives, connected to one another and all things through infinity. Floods reaches inward, to the icy depths of the heart to touch and to return with ancient elements unfolding in spectral bliss and horror. Reality of pain and agony is equally married with yearning, dreaming and joyous exaltation. Stephen Kasner evokes a fully-realized painting-to-music translation, with collaborations by David Beaver, Mat Woods, Cheryl Pyle and the vexing vocals of Yoshiko Ohara (Bloody Panda). Floods calls forth a remarkable section of time and feeling, simultaneously compressed and unfurling. A frozen monster of memories, hope and love, and a constant reminder of death’s door. Seamless, endless, connected energy. These are fragments of hauntings within us all. We must always remember.

UR/SK Series09

Limited Edition of 750

Recorded and mixed by Stephen Kasner, 2008-2009.

Music: Stephen Kasner, David Beaver, Yoshiko Ohara, Mat Woods and Cheryl Pyle.

1.Cold Flood/In
2.Head Found in Aptos
3.Spiritless
4.White Wax Blood
5.Hemming
6.Picture of Time and Space/Out

Filmed in Belgium.

Directed by: Dwid Hellion, Tine Guns, Ture, Mathieu Vandekerckhove, and Stephanie Van Houtte.

Starring: Ture, Ielche Lievens, and Lenore.