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Anla Courtis ja Lehtisalo — 1972
(Bandcamp Full Contact Records KRYPT-169, 2025, LP / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2025-06-28

1972 Cover art

1972 is truly an avant garde album that recalls the experimental free flow of sound manipulation of the late-70s / early-80s cassette culture when sonic artists like Minoy, Hal McGee, Merzbow, and PBK were so heavily processing sounds and noise that the resulting interacting harmonics made it impossible to identify the source material. Fifty years later Argentina’s Anla Courtis (Reynols) and Finland’s Jussi Lehtisalo (Circle) have joined forces to create eight sonic essays on 1972. Each track has some gibberish title with a date in 1972. And I say gibberish since whenever I search for one of the “words,” all that comes up is a reference to the album 1972. Each of the eight tracks, “Mustikkando 01.10.1972,” “Limtruuna 03.02.1972,” “Papuuro 30.04.1972,” “Retissabano 04.04.1972,” Cebopula 09.07.1972,” “Sokerucar 21.09.1972,” “Omensana 07.10.1972,” and “Naroranssiranja 31.12.1972” is unique, but obscure. Even using Google translate does not provide any insight. These tracks are relatively short, six minutes or less in duration, and at times minimal such as the circular acoustic track “Cebopula 09.07.1972.” The tracks vary from slow guitar chords, clashing and crashing guitars, sizzling sonic textures, mechanical repetitions, distorted vocals, noise, sliding concrete blocks, cavernous throat singing, muffled rumblings, to sustained piano chords. Quite a mysterious and adventurous sonic experience for the intrepid explorer. These two musicians have a long history of working in this genre, and yet they are still able to create experimental sonic excursions that sound new.


Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Anla Courtis, Jussi Lehtisalo

More info
http://anlacourtisjalehtisalo.bandcamp.com/album/1972

 

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