Maninkari – L’Océan Rêve Dans Sa Loisiveté 4th Session / Daniel Szwed – Standard Cap

Rope Worm

The latest two releases from experimental label Rope Worm find French improvisational duo Maninkari and Polish exploratory drummer Daniel Szwed expanding sound in very different directions, but both leaning very much towards esoteric instrumentalism.

Maninkari’s latest is the fourth instalment of their L’Océan Rêve Dans Sa Loisiveté series, the previous sessions of which date back to 2014, 2017 and 2019. Here using cymbalom, frame drum, viola, santoor, synths and percussion, they generate nine untitled pieces that meander in air that is free and clear. The drifting percussion allows the cymbalom to hover over an Eastern landscape that is diffuse and dry. The Eastern tinges do not overwhelm, but lend a mystery to the proceedings that is added to by a sense of abstraction.

The variety of percussion adds a different feel to each piece, but they are all tied together by a search for something just out of reach. The tone of the viola is haunting and also insinuating, its spectral beauty when tied to the hammered strings evoking wide-open empty spaces, but with distant birds playing in the sky. The viola moves from strafing high end to slow droning melancholy, inhabiting tension-inducing friction in between; and while the percussive beats are undaunted, the length enables a bit of trance induction.

As things progress, so the instruments squirm and chatter and it feels like an uneven dance; a kaleidoscopic dazzle that gradually strips itself down to a finale of drums and wind that allows the listener to touch down gently once again. As a further exploration, this sequence of pieces gives the listener a welcome break from the humdrum and gently transports to a very different place.

On the other hand, with Standard Cap, Daniel Szwed sets forceful industrial rhythms against meandering instrumental passages with further textures rattling in the background. It is a little ominous; the paradox between the beats and the increasing flow of the textures and the hefty, distorted nature of the beats lends little light.

The faintest of chimes do shed a little illumination, but on the whole this is brutal and intense, and tends to share a similar claustrophobic atmosphere with The Bug but without the dub heavy connotations. The title track is split into six sections and at some points the beats are briefly glazed and indistinct; but then Daniel’s take on glacial dance music soldiers through, a corona of electronic scurf discarded by the heavy rhythm.

The beats are relentless in their minimalist direction, but the other sounds drill into the head with a desire to pummel us into submission one way or another. At other points there are separate rhythms attacking and the feeling is of being held hostage in a particularly raucous factory where various metallic structures are being constructed. Everyone else is wearing earphones, but you are not extended that privilege.

There is a surprising variety in the deadly beats and the ever-evolving spread of the electronics trickles like water slipping though cracks at some points and then crackles like faulty wiring in others. Agonised locked-room vocals burst out on track five and the sense of being trapped in Hell comes through with a sense of terror. The whole thing is quite overwhelming and when the more complicated beats of the final piece arrive, they cast memories of Test Dept with a pressure relief valve running roughshod over all of it.

At full volume this is a punishing but satisfying listen that offers up more with each spin. Rope Worm are certainly proving to be a label to watch and with these limited to just 300 pieces each, snap them up while you can.

-Mr Olivetti-