By Mita Tate

When Boston avant garde music scholar Aden Evens and Montreal-based Constellation Records owner, Ian Ilavsky, got together back in 1997, they had one thing on their minds: turning sound into a musical composition. As they collaborate once again the new full length, Re: Alms, they have not deviated from this formula.

The front of the CD instructs listeners to “please play as loud as possible.” This is not some sort of evil trick to blow up listeners’ speakers, ala Merzbow or Prurient, this is neccessary in allowing listeners to fully experience Alms by becoming completely engulfed in its sparse, doom-laden atmospherics.

Unlike most harsher noise acts, Re: did not simply go on an all out aural assault with their manipulation of frequencies and feedback tones, but actually composed these seven sound offerings, splicing and assembling field recordings, multi-rate filter-banks, droning loops, sporadic bloops and bleeps, amongst countless other elements. This adds a level of not only multilayered depth, but an almost unspoken human quality to it. This is sound sculpture at its most personal.

Re: advise that Alms is not an ambient record. While it may not be Brian Eno’s Music For Airports there are many elements of militaristic dark ambience present (think Sophia and Karjalan Sissit without the bombastic, neo-classical influences). While the atmosphere created on Alms is engulfing and incredibly dense, the actual composition is loop-based, rhythmic minimalism. At times the rudimentary textures and oppressive drones are reminiscent of David Lynch’s Eraserhead, with its often-industrial yet organic sound manipulations.

The best way to describe Re:’s Alms visually is as a dirty old power plant in the middle of a lush, open field. Sometimes Re: is locked in the plant’s impenetrable basement surrounded by broken down computers and steel pipelines, while at other times Re: steps outside the factory’s gates to take a break and admire the beautiful nature but still remain close enough to inhale the toxic fumes and smell of burning plastic.

While Re:’s Alms sounds like the type of release that would appear on Cold Meat Industry, as opposed to Constellation; however the humanistic quality as well as the subtle post rock elements in songs like “Orientalism As A Humanism” and “Pawk” make it fit perfectly when juxtaposed next to its labelmates Godspeed You! Black Emperor, 1-Speed Bike and A Silver Mt. Zion.