Illusion of Safety mainstay Burke and sonicist errant Dimuzio are a perfect pair. Their common chosen path is one of electroacoustic exploration, combining sampling, processing, tapes, and live noise-making (calling their enthusiastic instrumental and radio-knob manhandling "musicianship" would be overly generous) in live and studio settings. Each artist brings to the workbench an affinity for the nature of sound.
HZ documents a series of California performances presented by Burke and Dimuzio in October of 1997. The improvised tracks operate in the desolate arena of post-industrial sound, but the perpetrators take a page from the example of AMM's jazz-like metamusical interplay to imply a certain, if covert, human presence. Motors purr, hiss, scrape, and groan, setting up a foundation of sonorous drones for Burke and Dimuzio's sonic manipulations and electronic outbursts. The duo's efforts range from freakish alien-zoo atmospheres ("Aware," "Dross," "Outflow") to the labored workings of arcane machinery ("Dropforge," "Rota"). HZ strikes an especially poignant note on "Charastrigor," as radio strains drift sadly across the rubble of a bomb-scarred city square.
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