Bobby Would – Mumia

Left-turn return from Robert Pawliczek's Bobby Would project with a slow-moving, mostly instrumental suite of drone based sound that doubles as a tribute of sorts for artist friend Sven Sachsalber, who passed unexpectedly in mysterious circumstances during the early days of the pandemic. The title Mumia directly references a series of paint-based experiments Sachsalber had been working on shortly before his death, whereby he was utilising ancient pigments tied to specific cultures and practices, making mistakes along the way and inadvertently confusing histories - note that the official press release attached to the record describes this practice very well, and is worth referring to for a fuller understanding. Pawliczek's response is understandably elegiac in tone, a sepia-like wash of layered glacial drone that's a long way removed from much of the mordant sense of humour that characterises his other work. Drone is an ideal aesthetic response to painting, overlapping tonal shifts and repeated phrases that reveal different sonic qualities over time, the spectrum of sound in symbiosis with the spectrum of colour. If Mumia is conceptually solid, then it's also emotionally redolent, it's notable difference to its creator's other work expressive in itself of its sincere value. No doubt that this is weighty, sad sounding music, though it contains in it a strange kind of ineffable beauty too, a tribute yes and a mourning also, but a celebration too, a truly human response to an unfortunately very human experience.  
 
FFO: Tim Hecker, Andrew Chalk, William Basinski, GAS, Biosphere