Lolly Gesserit / Rale

***On this double cassette release, we see two artists, ELIJAH FORREST and WILLIAM HUTSON, better known by their monikers LOLLY GESSERIT and RALE respectively, spread their art as a form of communication. For Lolly Gesserit, there’s a long, tense realm of droning throb, cracks of static and bending, metallic warp. We hear elements some may find familiar to Forrest’s early works under his, perhaps better known identification Terrors. Realistically, this is a much different animal though. The elements here are much more grim, for lack of a better word; coming across almost disturbing, there’s a true darkness to the tone and texture throughout Forrest’s tracks. Hutson’s Rale material is cut from a very similar cloth, a further realization that this is truly a dialogue of two artists. Hutson’s sounds are as bleak and worn as Forrest’s, offering long, sweeping, burnt distortion and tense, blankets of frosty reverberation. There’s subtle warmth, moments of melodic crawl that strings together the more harrowing, noisier elements. The entire chunk of music holds together between the two players, a complete, cohesive unit of sound. It’s a very collaborative piece, without being an out-and-out collaboration. However, to call this a split release feels unfair and selling it extremely short. This is a headtrip, a long spiraling trip into some void we may never completely understand. The end result is irrelevant, it’s the trip, the journey through this miasma of sonics that makes the piece prove its point. We don’t need a destination when the voyage is this deep.