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SISTER LOOLOMIE / KRYPTOGEN RUNDFUNK "[W]interloop[s]"

Review from Connexion Bizarre (12.05.2009):

This single-track collaboration is a meeting point of two talented but lesser-known Russian sound sculptors. Unlike many collaborations where the contribution of each participant is hard to distinguish, here they stand out clearly: Sister Loolomie provides the backbone with layers of distant drones, while Kryptogen Rundfunk provides the details and the grittiness with his trademark radio noises. The result is a personal one, although some parallels can be drawn with early works of Bad Sector or mid-period Wilt.

"[w]interloop[s]" kicks off calmly by immersing the listener in slowly expanding, shimmering drones. The cool atmosphere gradually gives way to a faint warmer melody, while the soothing hisses and crackling radio statics are building momentum. As the melody fades into distance, the atmosphere takes a turn in a colder direction. What used to be soothing becomes grinding, what used to be distant becomes ominous. Brief voice snippets appear from the ether just to soon vanish back into the crackling statics. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a beautiful melody appears, bringing with it a warm, bassy grinding. Together with well placed radio frequency tweaks, warm scratches and shimmering layers of noises they form a powerful and moving crescendo. As this highlight fades, the mechanical grinding starts dominating once again and forcefully plunges the listener back into a void of lingering hisses and ice cold crackles. One does not need to wait too long, though, as soon the melodic parts appear once again, providing a slow and relaxed comedown, back to the waking world.

Ambient, and especially drone, is a form of music where being hasty is a sin. Calling a half an hour track rushed would be an exaggeration, but when this single track is formed out of five quite distinct sections, one cannot help feeling that things are cut a bit shorter than necessary. Allowing for the atmospheres of each section to develop further and putting more care into making the transitions smoother would have definitely made this collaboration stronger. Still, even as it stands now, "[w]interloop[s]" is a nice, small piece of droney ambient, which is well balanced between the melodic and the grittier elements. Let's just hope that the artists find time in the future to develop these ideas further.

Ville L.

Review from Vital Weekly (11.06.2009):

M.M., also known as Kryptogen Rundfunk played a great set of electronic music with at times earpiercing waves and then more subtle tones at other occasions. Here he teams up with [s], the man from Moscow whom we best know as Five Elements Music, a refined master of drone music, but who apparently works under many guises, and Sister Loolomie is one of them. I guess this is a sort of guise to work inside more noisy textures of music, even when he is credited on the cover for guitar, synth, cosmic vibrations and radiowaves, whereas M.M. plays radiowaves and computer processing. Winter music this is indeed as this is a piece (one track, thirty minutes, only) of piercing cold electronics, which towards the very end shows a bit of spring time. Having said that, it may sound negative, but its not. This is actually a great piece, in which the harsher sounds prevail at one point, but things never go over the top and the two know how to cut back their sound and start working again from a softer perspective. A great combination of harsher sounds and more ambient textures. Winter in Russia is hard and these two provide the soundtrack for a long winter evening. Even when its june and the sun is high and mighty. Great work.

FdW.