Veinke- Collection III: The Black Summer

Artist: Veinke
CD Title: Collection III: The Black Summer
Label: Triumvirate
Reviewer: Matthew Johnson
Date: 9/18/05

This collection of untitled tracks from Veinke has a little something for everyone, as long as you’re a fan of extreme noise. For fans of creepy soundscapes, the CD starts off with a selection of minimal ambient colder than the deepest abyss, and the third track is an epic-length mélange of tortured breathing, half-heard voices, eerie fluttering and whispered moans, all layered over a series of sustained drones. In between, there’s a more ritual-oriented piece, like something you’d expect in an evil Tibetan monastery in an Indiana Jones flick, all hollow chants and slow, ominous percussion. If power electronics is more your thing, the fourth track is full of distorted blasts of static and garbled vocal growling, and the fifth track is all agonizing feedback. The last couple of tracks are more in the realms of found sound; though the sources are never identified, these compositions are reminiscent of crumpling plastic run through various effects, and should appeal to fans of Nurse With Wound or even the weirder pieces Einstürzende Neubauten has come up with over the years. All in all, this is a great sampler; it does make you wonder, however, what happened to the first two collections.

Unfortunately, Veinke does not seem to have a website, but you can visit the record label at www.citadel-gate.com for more information on this release.