invisible birds

ingenting kollektiva
lost beyond telling

ib006 - cd + dvd - 2012
edition of five hundred

cd :
lost beyond telling, fragments of night modifié par johannes d'église
and assisted by matthew swiezynski. mastered by taylor deupree

notes to the recording :

reinterpretations of ingenting kollektiva's lp fragments of night, with additional material from j.s. bach,
ingmar bergman, olivier messiaen, johannes d'église and matthew swiezynski.

music inspired by the work of modern french poets such as charles baudelaire, yves bonnefoy, and philippe
jaccottet. titles and ambiance for this album have been greatly assisted by richard stamelman's book lost
beyond telling : representations of death and absence in modern french poetry.

dvd :
film 1. spectral analysis loops - 2011-12
a collaboration between the tarrl lightowler (image, editing, sound) and matthew swiezynski (editing, sound)
sound material from the lp fragments of night plus new material by matthew swiezynski
the music for loop three; deep in the glowing, was mastered by giuseppe ielasi

film 2. my heart, delirious with sound - 2011-12
a collaboration between matthew swiezynski (image, editing, sound) and diane granahan (sound)

film 3. i can feel the sea falling over my head - 2008-09
a collaboration between matthew swiezynski (image, editing, sound) and diane granahan (harmonium, sound)

notes to the spectral analysis loops :

"i attempt to render sections from the spectral analysis of things, to show them in many
aspects and permutations simultaneously: their relations, sequences and oppositions.
unfortunately i am unable to observe things from all sides - i consider my so-called abstraction
and my actual ambiguity to be moments of realism."

from hugo huppert's (in the prayer-mill's rattling): a visit with paul celan in the book translating tradition.

the films are loops made from animated photographs of Natur taken by tarrl lightowler and then generally remixed by matthew
swiezynski with either new soundtracks, or extended versions of sound from their LP fragments of night. nature, landscape, poetry,
alchemy and perception are very important to this series.

notes to my heart, delirious with sound :

abstracted water, trees and light patterns originally shot in 2007 around north carolina, and reedited in
2011-12 with a new soundtrack of dark ambient japanese flute extractions and modifications by dg + ms.

notes to i can feel the sea falling over my head :

a film reflecting on a near death experience with the sea, which after some time had passed, became transcendental.
also motivated by the lush emotional songs of the smiths.

reviews:

vital weekly

i was first introduced to ingenting kollektiva in vital weekly 820, when i reviewed their LP 'fragments of night' and here they
return. it's collective of musicians and film makers, who work in various constellations. they are johannes d'église, diane granahan,
kirston & tarrl lightowler and matthew swiezynski. the CD is by d'église and swiezynski, while the DVD has music by swiezynski
and lightowler, and films by the both of them and granahan. complicated perhaps? "the kollektiva seeks to issue recordings that are
meditations on the quality of light, sound and atmosphere created by ingmar bergman and sven nykvist" it still says on the website,
and to that musical end we have here music being processed by johann sebastian bach, ingmar bergman, olivier messiaen, arthur de eriomem
and their own 'fragments of night'. the nine pieces on the CD flow into each other in a most natural way, so that we indeed have one
long piece, but also clearly divided into nine separate sections. highly atmospheric music, using lots of time stretching (i assume),
which are smeared out in thick layers over the canvas (that is the computer that is). all of it quite dark and heavily textured,
perhaps not unlike their previous album. you won't recognize any of the sound sources, me thinks, and perhaps soundtrack music. and
last time i wrote: "i wonder what their own films be like", so now i can head over to the DVD part of this. now, i am not much of
critique when it comes to art movies, certainly when they are of an abstract nature, and i feel i can only judge them in merely
subjective views, i.e. i can tell you what i see and if i like it. to start with the latter: i do like it. ingenting kollektiva know
quite well how to translate their music into film (although you never know what came first). especially in the four films by tarrl
lightowler we have a fine bombardment of visuals, multi-layered, swiftly moving about, like flicker movie. perhaps too rapid if you
are an epileptic, but i thought these were great. images of birds, petals, and more abstract imagery work quite nice altogether.
in the film 'my heart, delirious with sound', the images are very reduced. black background and abstract grey washes dropping by every
now and then. it fits the sparse music of single processed flute quite well. such sparseness is also present in 'i can feel the sea
falling over my head', and these two longer films offer a totally different side of the coin of ingenting kollektiva. i liked the LP
back then, but it's this package which completes the picture even better.
maybe too late but there is a special highly limited and highly expensive edition which includes thirty more minutes of music, which
may not shed more light on their music, but instead further explores the depths of their musical world.

~ frans de waard

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art-into-life

this is an october, 2012 release from the ambient/sound art label, invisible birds that only leaves us with high quality works made
from a slow pace. (this is) the drone unit, ingenting kollektiva from diane granahan & matthew swiezynski who continuously present
their works of video together with sound. this time they release a piece in the form of a CD + DVD set. in the main piece, generally
speaking, the matter/contents of the sounds are magnificent; the quite clouded tone-colours and un-stable blurring lets flourish
miraculous sensations. collages of petals, even the simple videos of monochrome images vibrating and moving are great. highly
recommended.

shingo aoyagi

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facebook

the new ingenting kollektiva set (CD+DVD) 'lost beyond telling' on invisible birds is really something to behold and behear. the album
itself is an astonishing, multi-layered dreamscape that encompasses both the super- and the hyper-natural. the music seems to fold light
into its shifting tapestry of threads and is one of the most filmic sound narratives i've ever heard. very highly recommended. it could
well be my album of the year.

~ brian lavelle

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aquarius records

here's one of those beautiful drone albums that should resonate with anyone keen on something to follow stars of the lid, the caretaker,
or basinski. the ingenting kollektiva remains something of a mystery both to us and, so it seems, to the rest of the world. some infor-
mation about their ideas are available (thanks to the impressionistic "art of memory" blog run by the kollectiva's m. swiezynski), but
much remains purposefully arcane, which suits their smoke and mirror approach to sound design. the kollectiva's first album seemed an
homage to ingmar bergman's definition of nothingness, in spanning the existential gap between the mundane and the eternal void. it also
channelled a zeitgeist that threaded together various pieces of music and film from 1969, but the results of that project formed an
ethereal set of dronemuzik that found a particular voice that transcended the cultural references.

the ghostly mood and nocturnal spell of their first album continues here on lost beyond telling, tracking further back in time with
references to messiaen and baudelaire. and again, the kollecktiva finds itself making a slow, almost liturgical album of minimalist
serenades through heavy processed instruments (guitar, cello, psaltry, etc.), field recordings, and manipulated pieces of crusty vinyl.
a beautiful night sea music opens the album with pools of deep drones that gradually fracture into basinski-like looping patterns phased
through a refined use tremolo and delay. comparatively scabrous textures churn through spiralling bird-song-like twitter on "the dark
backward abysm of time" all leading up to the somber, twenty-three minute conclusion of damp field recordings and backmasked bells
dragging through a darkened loveliness of oceanic driftscaping getting close to a salt marie celeste vibe. so nice!

the dvd portion of the program features two distinct visual aesthetics from within the kollektiva. the first four short films come by way
of tarrl lightowler, who operates with an intense stroboscopic flickering of ever magnifying, ever vibrant images. thickets of wire, bright
petals, chunks of ice, and piles of leaves are just a scant number of the images that lightowler projects in his videos, all siphoning out
of a violent vortex of pulsing light. for all of its natural source materials, his videos are quite violent, countering the hypnotic wash
of the sound, much of which originates from the material on the cd. brilliant stuff for sure, but please watch carefully, as retinal fatigue
comes on very quickly with these films. the two latter films are from matthew swiezynski, whose videos are far murkier with whisps of fire
and shadows of the landscape dominating the darkened field of vision. on both of his films, the sounds are wholly unique based on creepy
sounding loops that could have been culled from tibetan horns and harmonium.

~ jim haynes

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rough trade

ingenting kollektiva released 'fragments of night' to universal acclaim, a deep, sprawling excursion into a misted, dark netherworld steeped
in 20th century composition forms and experimental drifts. 'lost beyond telling' is a groundbreaking re-interpretation of that album with
additional material from j.s. bach, ingmar bergman, olivier messiaen, johannes d'église and matthew swiezynski.
the dvd features collaborations between matthew swiezynski and invited visual artists. video tracklist: film 1. spectral analysis loops -
2011-12
a collaboration between tarrl lightowler (image, editing, sound) and matthew swiezynski (editing, sound)
sound material from the lp fragments of night plus new material by matthew swiezynski.
the music for loop three; deep in the glowing, was mastered by giuseppe ielasi.

~ rough trade

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brianlavelle.org best of 2012 list

following on from last year's fragments of night LP (technically only out at the start of this year, i think, but considered as a 2011
release), this new album is an astonishing, multi-layered dreamscape that encompasses both the super- and the hyper-natural. the music
seems to fold light into its shifting tapestry of threads and is one of the most filmic sound narratives i've ever heard. the whole is
a multi-part affair, although each piece segues and surges slowly into the next so that you're soon lost in the collective's thick waves
of sound. it's not really drone music, because there's far too much going on here. truly glorious whatever you want to call it and all
wrapped up in a spectacular package. even in its non-limited edition format, it looks fantastic.

~ brian lavelle

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wonderful wooden reasons

this CD and DVD set is purely sensual. the audio portion is absolutely immersive and extremely well-developed. the visual component
features some truly astonishing imagery and some of the finest abstract film work i've encountered in recent memory. an impressively
cohesive and haunting experience.

~ colin andrew sheffield

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wonderful wooden reasons

very dream-like, this is filled with drones, field recordings, and who knows what else; it stays truly engaging throughout.

~ kyle wright

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drone records

wonderful transcendental drones on CD+DVD, second album after the nice "fragments of night" LP by this drone-collective from US, feat.
a re-interpretation of the first album & additional material + 3 films on the DVD; beautiful poetic / transcension ambience, inspired by
many french poets such as baudelaire, and others.. lim. 500, much recommended !!

~ stefan knappe

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santasangremagazine.wordpress.com on fragments of night & lost beyond telling

the devious ides of march may be yet over but ingenting kollektiva provided the soundtrack this year. this is organic, found sound design
of the highest order; the LP consists of two long form compositions which set their sights on capturing the late twilight hours after the
sun has set over the horizon. through the usage of menacing, rumbling tides of acoustic interplay, they usher in the night and we stand
in silent observance of it. the butterflies flutter this way and that, crickets begin to chirp in the hazy distance. you can just begin to
smell the distant burning leaves and clippings which are offered up reverently albeit unconsciously to the stars which begin to come
out slyly as the sky turns from the deep, penetrating blue of day into the gray wispy hints of the evening. sit about, if you like, on
your porch or as i did out back on the patio with this on. if you took all of tor lundvall's paintings and then stripped out all the color
you would have on your hands what fragments of night contains. there's no direct line between these two artists but the starkly similar
manner in which they summon up such elegant depictions of the silent places in our lives is riveting.

while your mind strolls along to these two tracks, enjoy how it wanders from the path; this is all purely instrumental work, there are no
words or catch phrases to distract you from meditating on your own existence. there is a rough, coarse texture to what the kollektiva compose
on fragments of night. you almost get the feeling they woke from a dream and tried to nail it all back down before the wisps of imagination
were excised in the harsh light of day. but for all the netherworld wonder this first part is comprised of, it is the second movement that
gets to me the most.

lost beyond telling is a full length series of re-interpretations culled out of those fragments; what the precise choices are i am not privy
to but i can tell you this: what coil began on the bonus cd-r for the seasonal singles is very much alive and thrives gorgeously on here. again,
there's no direct line between the two but there is something strangely familiar in the noises which come out of my speakers while i listen to
this. sometimes its a collection of droning menace and then at others i find the enchanting echoes and ritualistic near serpentine flicks of
highly manipulated bells... or are they voices, i could swear i hear someone talking very very softly as though the intent of their words has
been buried beneath so much electronic machination. i really am held rapt by what i'm hearing here, i only wish i'd have secured one of the 11
copies which contained an additional piece which no doubt completes the near symphonic majesty of what surely must be an ambient epic.

there is also a visual side to this outfit which i have not seen as of yet but i plan on addressing this. can what they've caught under the lens
come close to what i'm seeing when i close my eyes? i have no doubt it will exceed my expectations but until then i am quite content to listen
along to these masterful musicians as they alter and re-shape the scenery all around us. go into your own private realm, they seem to say. take
council with your thoughts, give them substance. it sometimes pays off quite impressively when you just strike out into the unknown, step away
from your burdensome train of thought and throw off the shackles of routine.

somewhere between where i live and the coast there is a road which this pair of albums may well have been drawn out from. one begins in the cities,
progressing through numerous freeway interchanges and then arrives at a barren stretch of desolate, deserted two lane asphalt. there is nothing out
there save the occasional lights of a settlement, endless mile after mile of rusted, warped barbed wire but through the gloaming skies you can make
out an unbroken series of wire raised high above your eyes. the one link with the outside world, the tenuous thread back to civilization. these are
the fragments of night, indeed. don't say you have not been thoroughly advised, this set of releases dissolves the waking life you lead into a
somnambulist's paradise...a mercurial dominion of omnipotent reflections.

~ peter marks

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nordische-musik.de

if even avant-garde, but correct! behind the ingenting collectives hide a handful of artists living in the united states, whose love for the films
of ingmar bergman and sven nykvist they suggested established this collective as well as the label oiseaux invisibles. but where do they actually
take their ideas, is only vaguely known. collections by various, seemingly incompatible artists and other influences are listed on their website
for their LP "fragments of night"; for example: "album inspired by various recordings from 1969."

that forty minute album is now further thought on the successor of the second as aptly titled "lost beyond telling" that is partly made up of
fragments of "fragments of the night" re-composed, and enriched by numerous other factors. from heavy distorted instruments (guitars, cello,
bells, tibetan prayer bowl, harmonium, shakuhachi, saxophone), loops, and various field recordings, ingenting creates complex developed ghostly
moods from her source of inspiration, the light, the sounds and the atmospheres in bergman nykvist and emancipate completely. it is interesting:
the almost eighty minutes CD creates a more cinematic narrative than the six videos and movies on the equally excellent DVD.

it is hardly possible to describe the wealth of stories and meditative qualities of the music in a few words. the nearly 70-minute DVD in turn
yields a very different picture, which settles on pleasing expectable gloomy stimmungsgemale similar projects, particularly in the four of animated,
developed abstract nature photographs "spectral analysis loops." the stroboscopic and thus quite aggressive mounting rapidly changing images could
give sensitive viewers headaches. and rather shady minimalism of the two films by matthew swiezynski. especially recommended for lovers of sound
artists mentioned below.

~ ingo j. biermann (bad translation of german using google translate)

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darkroomrituals.wordpress.com & maeror3.livejournal.com

in the spirit of post-modernism, with which contemporary art is successful and generates itself non-stop, the participants of ingenting kollektiva
run loops recycling bach, olivier messiaen, ingmar bergman, as well as material from their own debut album "fragments of night", (which was also
built on the processing of records of the sixties), with the result, multidimensional drone ambient, in which living organic textures entered into
an algebraic cold electro-transformation, helping to achieve genuine infinity in the cycle of individual small particles "everything is abyss".
okay, bad habit to start a review from the end of the album, as it should start from the beginning. the origins of "lost beyond telling", inspired by
reflections on french poetry and existentialism, takes in the winter dusk isolationist, where the walls swept house on the outskirts of civilization
someone trying to dream, drowning in endless snowy landscapes, and it is almost impossible. more precisely, it turns out to capture the moment
when a drowsy consciousness beginning to have fragments of melodies and sounds that seem so familiar, but stubbornly defy identification. in
deep sleep interfere dive footsteps behind a wall but a ghostly whisper, it is possible that these winter ghosts hurry to look into your room and head
through the frost-painted glass. overall likable beginning, where the resonating cavities arise spontaneously, quickly go to the forefront, paving the
bridge to the following picture, mood, inspired by this sleepy humming and vibrating extracts from time classic music. somewhere along the way there
is a guitar haze, sometimes even to take the shape of "right" tunes, but sinking into the soul of it is this his ephemeral, likening fell to earth the
mist, through which the rays of dawn had already punched, driving some to thicken at the time "this presence perhaps absence" darkness. but in the
morning bliss should absolutely charming organic ambient "the air wove of these nothings", transparent, full loop of the lake screaming birds and
ringing singing bowls. in this little world of the melting of winter and the coming of spring breaks sound of water along with the sounds of cello
and violin as well as flocks of cranes returning from the south, the shouting and beating of wings are attached to established authors locations
vitality and organic beauty. however, even the new eydzhevym moments "lost beyond telling" moody textures are almost always accompanied by
a sense of the abyss, spanning all the living things that make this album. elements gradually simplified, lose their "color" under string sounds,
and fall into the void, which is like a small child, to screen large resonant arrays and spatial indexes, leaving only sound the sand grains and
brittle bones of birds that will be shifting in the palms throughout "everything is abyss". however, in this endless time, you probably will sleep
and very different dreams.

in its texture and emotional content "lost beyond telling" is a very high quality and strong album. its frosty crackles, echo dawn glare and emptiness
want re-listens, perhaps with a small volume of baudelaire in ones hands, with some bach fugue, which plays in the background of the next room,
and black and white bergman characters on the screen, open their mouths in time with the beyond whisper, and is filled with the strange and
expressive music "ingenting kollektiva".

~ sergey oreshkin (bad translation of russian using google translate)

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amoeba records, from "music we like, spring/summer 2013"

CD + DVD set following up from the previous LP fragments of night, this is another excursion into shifting forms and atmospheres by this kollektiv
of sound and film artists. mesmerizing and beautiful, haunted, hushed. . . an entire night's worth of dreams assembled into two pieces of silvery
plastic. i don't know how much to say about this wonderful ensemble, their releases thus far are far and away the best "ambient" music i've heard.
recently excellent at most any volume, a perfect soundtrack to drift - whether to sleep, to think, or to stare into space and empty your thoughts.
beautiful

~ jim kaiser