Modern Obscure Vinyl & CDs

Review: Pedro Vian and Merzbow release their first joint work, Inside Richard Serra Sculptures, marking a worthy expressionistic turn in an already monumental discography by the former artist. Building on and expanding upon a series of field recordings made by Vian inside one of the artist Richard Serra's sculptures, then housed at the DIA Beacon Foundation, this eponymous two-park work is a guttural, verging on obscene noise crud-out, albeit one which still scoops redoubts of emotion from its expansive walls and toothy upheavals. Vian's original recordings are lent an ungular sharpness by the latter Japanese noise legend, whose name not only adds much clout to the mix but whose sound likewise eviscerates the sounds derived from the modernist roundhouses of Serra's work. An acousmatic masterwork laid to record, with brutally frank but ultimately rewarding consequences.