seven

axiome is yet another side project of olivier moreau (imminent starvation, urawa, ambre, delta files, torsion) presenting to the world yet another side of this artist. this time it is the material that was collected over several years working together with performance artist and musician c-drìk.

the music on "rictus" is a mix of straightforward distorted percussion that reminds me of hypnoskull with the same tribal intensity and repetitiveness, layered ambient soundscapes that create a nice background for bombastic beats and occasional synths that make the music even more diverse and harmonic. the percussion is one of the first elements that you notice - it drives almost every track and creates overall force and edge on the album.

some of the tracks that attracted my attention include "salve" that swirls and pounds, hypnotizing the listener; it features bombing percussion and carefully arranged synths with periodic bursts of white noise. the track has melancholic yet menacing atmosphere with the touch of chaotic insanity. "have" is more ambient piece with chimes, transparent random noise structures and cold sounds scattered across the landscape. it blends well with the overall power and force of the disk. "aphte" is my favorite on "rictus" - slow crushing and rotating distorted beats; thick strings on the background weaving the melody; the short moments of silence accentuate the power of percussion that follows. "aphte" constructs the best balance of power and softness that axiome is trying to create on this disk.

i am constantly amazed at the creativity of olivier moreau and diversity of his music output. constantly exploring, he manages to create projects with distinct sound that are so different from each other. this disk is more "user-friendly" than some of his other projects, but it still has all the features that ant-zen releases are famous for.