bunsenburner – poise
Release Date: 9th December 2022
Label: Bensnburner Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner Doom, Ambient, Jazz, Metal, Doomgaze.
FFO: Ecstatic Vision, Zetra, Nebula.
Review By: Jason James
Ben Krahl returns to expand musical horizons once again with his new collaborative effort, an album called poise, under the new moniker bunsenburner.
It seems like these guys are attempting to be elusive, purposely. They seem to be very careful with the information that is put out, almost on a need-to-know basis. This is very different from the usual artistic endeavour, where usually the artists attempt to disseminate as much information about themselves as is possible. The fact that this collective seems to be subverting that norm is pretty refreshing. The way the blurb is phrased, this seems very much more like a collection of friends getting together to jam and publishing the results than a band trying to get everything tight and perfect.
The way this album was conceived is very different from the average too. Ben kept as much of his compositions from the band as he could, asking them to ‘fill in the gaps’ as he played them. Over the course of 3 days, they riffed and played off each other until they had created 12 tracks from almost scratch. This is especially apparent on the ambient tracks, like the first track, Permeare, or Spiegelkabinett later on in the album. There is a definite jazz band feel to the proceedings, the entire album recorded live with no prior arrangements and no overdubs at a later date. What you hear is what came out of their 3-day session.
The results are very interesting indeed. This is a marked departure from Ben’s Bensnburner output, which is exploratory Ambient music, whereas this is firmly in the Doom Metal area. poise takes its time, probing the process of music creation and trusting that reacting to what you’re hearing ad-hoc can yield positive results. My favourite tracks on the album are Lights of Jupiter and one of the singles, Ascent of Sap. Both tracks, while being methodical and meditative, hit hard enough to be definitive head nodders.
This album makes me hope more bands take this approach to their creative process. And makes me hope that Ben Krahl continues in this vein for future projects.
(4 / 5)
