Autopsia Factory RitualsScore
As a rule of thumb, Heathen Harvest does not generally cover net releases.
But, as Autopsia took the time to elaborately package and send a CD-R version
of this release our way, we're going to go ahead and give them the benefit of a doubt.
That, and we can't seem to get enough of the band around here!
Factory Rituals was initially a soundtrack for an exhibition that Autopsia took
part in in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1989. These tracks are not and were not available
in any format prior to this digital release and as such can be considered their
own entity. The tracks have been digitally remastered from the original 4-channel
tape and contain no manipulations via computers or samplers.
This release will bring a nostalgic point of memory to any fan of Autopsia who has
followed their works from their early days. As such, Factory Rituals sounds nearly
exactly what one could conjure in their imagination about the sound of the workings
inside. Upon the entrance of the work, we're led up a cold stone stairway through
ornately carved wood doors into the factory, full of harmonic Gregorian chants.
Monks shattered in time itself, amongst the ruined rusted metal fragments of existence.
Mind you, it doesn't seem this release is meant to be a solidified conceptual album,
but rather seven experimentations that play into this time frame (1984 – 1989).
You WILL go between tracks, sometimes abruptly, and not be able to simply flow
with the music. As the press sheet states though, “Music is order and disorder”.
Both, indeed, are found here in great volume.
From industrial rhythms and dark ambient backgrounds to relentless choral swells
and droning to dramatic stringed sequences, Factory Rituals brings about music
that is rarely heard these days. Too many put too much faith in the technology
they use today as a means to create great works of industrial noise and experimental
compositions. However, with this journey into the birth of Autopsia, it is quickly seen
that the tools readily available to most of us, perhaps even collecting the dust of time
in the basements of friends and family, are capable of creating quality and fascinating works.
As with most music on this level though, there is definitely a spiritual synthesis
to be found in Factory Rituals. It is more than noise, more than music, more than
making a point. There are few projects today who can claim to have the same
passion for what they do now 20 years later down the road as they did in their
artistic birth. Simply put, its through this authentic manifestation of talent that
Autopsia not only continues to compose great works of art, but continues to
inspire its listeners now two decades later. If you don't understand what I'm
saying, feel free to check out the score artwork available for download with
the album from their website. Intricate, beautiful, and strangely inhuman.
Sage
Heathen Harvest
Although I tend not to make a habit out of this, mixing my reviews with personal
petite histoire, here is a nice story, which recently came up in an interview on my
own activities with cassettes in the 80s: "I didn't make a living out of it. I
do remember wanting to put the cassette by Autopsia, and had no money, so I washed my
fathers car and got 10 guilders, so I could xerox the covers." I could make as
many as 200 cassette covers of the 'Vivo' cassette which Autopsia send me earlier. As
far as I can remember it didn't have much info, and looking back I am not even sure
if it was supposed to be released by me. The name Autopsia I picked up before and
quite liked their sampling madness of orchestral tunes and industrial rhythms. I
think much of my cassette ended up on the 'Wound' CD, released somewhere in the 90s.
This download only release by Autopsia harks back to those glory days, and it was
conceived for an exhibition in Belgrade in 1989, and contains 'sampler & computer
free recordings' from 1985-1988. I assume it was made with splice and loop of good ol'
reel-to-reel recorders. None of the seven pieces sound like the music I released, and
seems to me, with the benefit of looking back, the forerunner or their early CD
releases, like my beloved 'Death Is The Mother Of Beauty'. Quite orchestral, with
humming and chanting voices, choir like and cerebral. This is still the Autopsia that
I like, the one that leaps from memory, when I think of them. Static pieces with not
many changes, but which have a trance like character. I gather if I would encounter
this today for the first time, I would probably not like it as much, and denounce it
to be 'gothic', but at the time I heard it first, I thought it was great, and now,
twenty-five years it still stirs up good memories.
Frans de Waard VITAL
Available as free download at the Autopsia website, FACTORY RITUALS is a soundtrack
they did for an exhibition held in Belgrade back in 1989.
The seven tracks of the album bring me back to the sound of the early Autopsia releases
(the "Palladium", "The Knife" and "Death is the Mother of Beauty" years")
when they used choruses, industrial sounds and military rhythms.
I really appreciated this release as the tracks are able to create an hypnotic atmosphere
(see track IV for example with that looped strings/blows orchestra) avoiding the boredom effect.
Mind you, Autopsia isn't offering these high quality mp3s for free because they aren't worth
a CD release as all the seven tracks are good ones.
Download them all while they are available!
Maurizio Pustianaz, Chain DLK
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