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Nick Didkovsky — Profane Riddles
(Bandcamp Punos Music no#, 2024, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-07-05

Profane Riddles Cover art

One might remember the first time they picked up a new stringed instrument and just started playing it, without taking any lessons or learning it properly, playing various notes and chords and sequences of either or both, and the interesting results, sometime dissonance, strange minor keys, odd pairings of notes, and the remarkable emotions they introduce as one plays and listens to what they are playing. The immediacy and wonderment that follows can lead to a burst of introspective creative energy utilizing those newfound sounds. In the hands of a guitar master like Nick Didkovsky, these themes and sequences get folded into full-fledged improvisational vignettes, some under a minute in length, some more elaborate topping out at nearly seven minutes, and then these improvisations have new layers added to them as the development process be comes fully realized. With the nine cuts of Profane Riddles, Didkovsky has done exactly that, starting with various ideas and fragments and building them up layer by layer into something that sounds like nothing else, invoking that emotional response and unfathomed dreaminess. At just shy of two minutes, opener “Rebirth” sets the stage for all that follow, a simple ascending riff that repeats over and over as additional layers of guitar fold into it, changing slightly right before the end. “My Morning Star and Light-Bearer” erupts with a blast of distortion that shrouds the notes being played in a cosmic mystery through the whole piece. With “Pre-Crystallization (God and Corpse)” a repeating dissonant riff gets built built up into a gentle mysterious musical fabric as it proceeds to its three-plus minute conclusion. Similar, but perhaps more evocative is “Wherever I Am I Be,” a piece that  takes the listener on a gentle journey as it constructs itself over seven minutes, stopping often to take in the emotional views. Like the soundtrack to a dream, “This Sacred Purity, This Oppressive Paradise” winds through numerous turns and twists as it builds, releases, and rebuilds itself again. The entire proceeding is just under 32 minutes, but each time one listens, deeper layers reveal themselves, drawing the listener in even further. The album’s pen and ink square mandala-like cover art (by Y.I.H.H.)  complements the music herein perfectly, a dreamy yet complex piece that deserves to be on a posterboard the size of a picture window.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Nick Didkovsky

More info
http://doctornerve.bandcamp.com/album/profane-riddles

 

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