There is something of a trickster in
Florian Hecker's personality, and it translates into a wicked sense of humor in his music. But even before you hit the play button, you'll notice a few odd details, like the 11 dark brown-colored but otherwise blank booklet pages or track titles like "bsf°tyk 5" and "Protog-Eepp-Forma-Quack." OK, so you press play and "bsf°tyk 5" starts. It sounds like an orchestra of cheap synthesizer chords, something to accompany your run of the mill B movie horror flick, except that something went horribly wrong (indeed). Then comes "Stocha Acid Zlook," a track that takes up 21 minutes of this 40-minute disc. Sine waves are arranged into a long, awfully noisy drone. It's loud, in your face, and relentless, but at the same time quite funny, at least for the first few minutes. As time goes by and the sounds are more and more digitally stretched out, the piece turns into something very similar to
Koji Asano's marathon works (in the vein of Autumn Meadow). Everything stops at the 18-minute mark, but it starts again ten seconds later -- "Ha ha, fooled you!"
Hecker must be saying. The next five tracks are short essays in contemporary computer sound art, but once again of a very noisy kind. Only in "Quantum Spark Reality" do things simmer down, revealing a talent for form.
Sun Pandämonium gives quite a ride -- and not a comfortable one. It will make you sick to your stomach if you are not used to Mego's roster. Even then, it remains a difficult listen. ~ François Couture