Theodor Kentros - Trystero

XKatedral co-owner Theodor Kentros ventures out under his own name for a debut album of expertly framed electroacoustic compositions that establishes his place amongst the current Swedish drone/noise elite. Recorded over a period of three years stretching back to 2021, Kentros' fascination with organ drones and tape manipulation is roughly contemporaneous with that of Kali Malone, and crossover in instrumentation, locale and connection with XKatedral finds any comparison of the pair somewhat inevitable. There are worse artists to be compared with, but let's give Kentros his flowers, too. Though presented as a whole, these six tracks do feel like their own discrete (no pun intended) piece, each a variation on Kentros' clear interest in monolithic, near-rapturous sonics. Opener, 'Caveat Emptor', is particularly blasted, a snow storm of white noise distortion underpinned with a slowly emerging melody which feels born of the same static drenched mind of Yellow Swans, while the programmatically titled 15 minute-plus closer 'Approximately Fifteen.Five Minutes Surrounding F & C' is far cleaner sounding, an unfolding, radiant organ tone that summons visions of the imagined titular X Cathedral much of this music is centred around. What lies between sees Kentros rotating around a theme, though the title track, named for a reference from Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49, is particularly noteworthy, something like a Loren Connors and Earth collaboration if produced by Tim Hecker, a solemn guitar strum processed, debased and extended out into the eternal forever. Not a terrible place to find yourself at.