Human Greed ‘Omega:OST’ CD ICR DISTRIBUTION

Omega. A hoochie-­‐coochie carnival for the end of time. Out from the sideshow shadows creep an astounding array of freaks, ageless hucksters, and mind-­‐twisting curiosities. Raised from apocryphal texts, by black mirrors and prisms. Masters of the macabre spectacle, technical wizards, and true innovators of theatrical sleight-­‐of-­‐hand, Moscow’s blackSKYwhite – Fringe First and Total Theatre winners – return with their boldest, most audacious production to date, realised in the scale that this company deserves. Loud, exhilarating and utterly compelling. The recording is the result of an extraordinary collaboration between 2 obsessively singular voices; Human Greed’s Michael and the Moscow based Dimitry Aryupin, blackSKYwhite’s mercurial artistic director. For 8 months, with very little in terms of common language the pair threw themselves deep into the process of cooking up an aural bedrock on which to situate the extraordinary beings that populate the stage. Old testament excess, dustbowl carny gothic, and the captured wheezing and grunting of instruments worn out centuries on the road all figure in the soundtrack – and in doing so extend the range of Begg’s more familiar palette of electronics”. The record also features texts in English, Russian and Romani written by Begg and Aryupin. “O ushalin zhala war o kam mangela -­‐ The shadow moves as the sun commands.”

**REVIEW FROM VITAL WEEKLY** The problem with OST – original soundtrack – is that if you have seen the movie, or in this case the theatre production – it can be very hard to relate to that. This theatre piece for the blackSKYwhite group from Moscow will premiere in Glastonbury and then have a four week run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is not on my next week’s list of things to do when there is no Vital Weekly. I can quote the website: “A hoochie coochie freakshow for the end of time. A dusty, road worn carny of hucksters, monsters, apocryphal curiosities and sideshow horrors.” I couldn’t have told you this based on the music. Here we have nineteen pieces, from just under one minute up to just over nine minutes which makes the whole thing more scattered than the usual Human Greed release. What remains in this soundtrack are the aspects of darkness, moody and sombre atmospheres. But there is also a difference to be noted, and that is the somewhat more collage-like aspect if the music. We hear a variety of instruments, harmonium, voices but also an extended use of electronics to process these sounds and create dark ambient textures. Its nice to see Begg moving away from his usual more ‘piece’ music into something that is a bit more scattered, fragmented, yet retaining some of the fine qualities his music has. Excellent release.Odd music, but an excellent showcase of what the musical capacities are of Michael Begg. (FdW)