Seconds In Formaldehyde - Inaudible (Verato Project, 2007)

1 There Is A Certain Feeling Under My Skin
2 The Calm Before The Storm
3 When Death Took Position Of Him

With five years of experience on his back and a couple of previously released albums in his account German guitar drone experimentalist Martin Fuhs comes with his third album. “Audible”. The album was released by verato project and it is a limited edition deluxe digipack. The album contains three songs that sums a whole record time of 45 minutes of guitar drone bliss, although the titles suggest something entirely different. Martin is at charge of the whole composition, performance and recording process aside from programming the drums and playing the guitar.
SIF continues the tradition of Aidan Baker’s Guitar drone ambient (he is a declared influence in Martin’s work). Half way improvisation and other half meticulous work, SIF is able to dissect every guitar chord into elongated drones of roomy lush and spacious ether. He denotes mastery in superimposing guitar layers, one over another in perfect motion, decomposing the original sound and creating an entirely different relentless set of drones that cut their way from ethereal landscapes with melancholic undertones to relaxed and grandiloquent vistas that incite oniric states in the listener. Like fumes of incense smoke, elevating and the concentrating in a spot, the drone quality is undulating ever expanding, incessantly moving and evolving. From one basic drone loop then comes another very subtly and in the blink of an eye we have a sum of layers conforming a whole piece of delicate beauty. Martin is able to bring cohesion and divergence to the plot by adding a smart usage of drum programming, excellently conceived and managed. The beat bring this chill out quality to the music, conceiving a very simple quasi heart beat accompaniment to the ever morphing qualities of the drone layers slowly setting a placid atmosphere of vague elements and fuzzy environments. Music to lie off ! First piece “There is a certain feeling under my skin”, in spite of the title, the song is an entrance to calmness and relaxation. Second piece “The calm before the storm” still preserving the ever moving aspect of the drone layers takes a more tribal aspect with the drum sequence, it has some eastern reminiscence also and evokes perhaps a wide hamman where the course of time seems to be of eternal quality. This piece is more hypnotic by constant repetition in the guitar drone sequences and perhaps comes with a little more tension as product of this effect. Latest song is the most western alike and the more ethereal as well. No more drum programming is present, only a westernized psychedelic echoed guitar strolls in first plane while the ethereal clouds of atonal sound stampede at the bottom. This is perhaps the more ethereal and dreamy piece. Very surreal and sun flowered, the walls of guitar noise float relentlessly inducing infinite bliss and a casting away shadows. It is like the soundtrack for a perfect evening of delicate and yet powerful golden tonalities.
SIF is a band that pleases the unaware listener or the practical expert in drone ambient. Very well worked and polished. With no flaws accountable, the pieces have the subtlety to seduce the listener without burdening him with over imposition of sequences or unnecessary loops. Enough rhythmic to allow a conscious perspective and to avoid drowsy states it is perfect to chill out and relax in proactive calm. It is not yet another drone guitar ambient but an interesting experience of sound quality and ethereal atmospherics.
Heathen Harvest

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Seconds In Formaldehyde - Suddenly Silence Burst My Ear (Tosom, 2007)

1 Untitled 1 5:28
2 Untitled 2 12:04
3 Untitled 3 11:52
4 Untitled 4 11:24
5 Untitled 5 4:08

The “live thing” is very important to Martin Fuhs of Seconds in Formaldehyde, as he pointed out in a recent post with regards to this album: “I'm really proud of this one because it shows the quality of my ability to do these drones in a non-studio environment.” In fact, his music has always had this raw touch to it. Of all the guitar-loop oriented performers out there, Fuhs may well be the one to allow his pieces the greatest amount of spontaneity and the largest contrast between tranquility and aggression – and his most recent output is a perfect demonstration of his technique.

Most of all, it clearly distinguishes him from the fold: By the time most reviewers will be comparing him to Aidan Baker, he will probably already be somewhere else; a theory further solidified by his experiments with rhythm on his Verato Project release “Inaudible”. Admittedly, there are, first of all, the similarities: Fuhs plays his guitar through a string of Pedal Stomp Boxes, gently tweaking the tones to soft, wooly threads and breathing drones, which are in turn looped and played against each other. He also enjoys counterpointing tracks, which essentially remain within the same key throughout, with discreet washes of disruptive chord clusters, causing a feeling of subtle estrangement. The play between satisfying expectations and confounding them is the motor of his music and keeps the three long meditations at the heart of this album going even in the long, silent stretches. And yet, these moments of quietude and beauty are, again and again, disrupted by sudden, harsh semblances: A single, penetrating note, a raving tremolo, a furious kick on the distortion pedal. In a mere seconds, the floating ambiances morph into halucinatory seas of feedback, noise and emphatically entangled melodic lines. It is almost as if a tsunami were brushing over the mildly rippled surface of a pond. It is a process already apparent on previous releases and which has now reached its climax in the third part of these five untitled movements, a musical version of the glass tunnel scene from blade runner, with the glass shardes cutting the flesh in real time in the end.

At the beginning of the year, Seconds in Formaldehyde contributed to the sampler “The Threshold of Silence”, now the project has openly broken that barrier – musically and conceptually. Somehow, “Silence burst my Ear” feels like the real beginning of Martin Fuhs’ discography, the quality of his previous albums notwithstanding. We will certainly follow him develop that “live thing” – especially with his first concerts coming up later this year.
Tokafi

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Seconds In Formaldehyde - The Red Sky That Was Filled With Gloom (Umbra, 2006)

1 A Gazing Beauty Cracked The Sky Into A Thousand Pieces 10:10
2 Whispering Clouds Of Sustain Enveloped The Landscape 16:39
3 The Lingering Of One Single Chord Defeated Our Hope 13:04

The Red Sky That Was Filled With Gloom is the first official release for Seconds in Formaldehyde. Inspired by Artists like Fear Falls Burning or Aidan Baker, this Record features atmospheric Guitar Drones. There are many Ways to discribe this Sort of Music. This is Music to releax to or even to medidate to. Its all about loosing the feeling for time and just lay back without any thoughts or something. Most of the Time the Music is pretty calm and smooth, but there are still some rougher moments. Remember, all of this music is made by the single effect of just one Guitar and a bunch of Effects. Strictly stripped down to the guitar and the noise that comes from it. Sometimes just one single chord builds an tremendous soundscape and single notes are flooting around. The trademark of Seconds in Formaldehyde music is the swelling of single notes. This record features 3 long tracks and everyone of them breaks the 10 minute mark.
Martin Fuhs

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