2CD, Sound On Probation, 2006
www.soundonprobation.com
Until now, I had never heard of Laurent Perrier before. He is maybe better known under the moniker Zonk’t, but if I’m really, really honest, other than that name, I neverheard the music. So I do what a good reviewer should do when he starts writing: research.
Laurent Perrier is in several projects, of which indeed Zonk’t is the most active, but the most famous very probably will be Nox. “Downfall / Disperse” is the first release under his own name. The two CD’s each have one track of over 50 minutes, recorded on January 12th, 2004 (‘Downfall’) and may 20th, 2005 (‘Disperse’). No explicit packaging, just a plain jewelcase with nice graphics and a little text – a few more words than what I wrote up to now.
So I continue to what is the second part of a good review, and that is tell you – the reader – why you should buy this album. To be more precise, to write down what makes an album deserve the note it gets. Normally this is quite difficult, because you have to consider a very diverse audience and still be clear and decisive. Especially when it it an ambient or drone album because it’s not really music. It’s – as with most good ambience – a mixture in between art and state of mind.
Both “Downfall” and “Disperse” have some gorgeous layering of really deep basses, repetitive structure (nor gitch, nor rhythm) and very stereophonic sound effects. It’s hard to pinpoint what it is exactly… Fifty minutes of drones isn’t easy to listen to, but the tension in the tracks is so strong, you want to keep on listening. “Disperse” has a bit more use of straight forward white noise – but it’s done really subtle – as “Downfall” has a bit more of an analog feel to it. If I tell you it sort of resembles Namanax’ “Monstrous” and the sounds of Daniel Menche you know what to expect.
To make a long and positive story a bit shorter: I simply feel that I cannot ever reach the essence of this album by only words. Give it a chance because you will not regret it.
[9/10]
— Bauke van der Wal