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Valanx is back with Materia Prima Lapidis Philosophorum on Broken20 label out of Glasgow, UK. Broken20 says about the album: Broken20 continue the Li_series, a set of collaborations between sound artists and the written word, released as a high-quality print with download code. In neo-confuscianism, Li is the random but recognisable patterning found in many aspects of nature – the grain in wood or the fibre in muscle. While it is easy to recognise, it is impossible to define. The Li Series seeks to emulate this 'thematic overlapping' by combining EP-length sonic works with related or influenced text. Ninth and penultimate in the series is Materia Prima Lapidis Philosophorum by Valanx accompanied by a text from Morag Law.
As Weinberg puts it, his Valanx project "focuses on my urge for liberation, and freedom of expression and experimentation."
Morag Law is the translator of Dileab Cholbhasach (A Colonsay Legacy), her mother's Gaelic memoir of rural life on a tiny Scottish island. As one would expect from that work, her concentrated tale of a hunt conducted across a deserted landscape is rooted in a deep sense of space, evoking a real connection between sound, place and the inner life that connects them: “The faint sounds of pursuit begin – at first it seems like the beating of my own heart or the pulsing of blood in my ears.”
As Valanx's music suggests tactile sensations and fear, so does the text: “All is dark and there is only the roughness of the bark beneath my fingers as I search for a place of sanctuary amongst the trees.” And as with the soundtrack, completion is not the same as closure. We're left with uncertainty, unsettled but hyper-aware of our surroundings, our fragility, our potential. Link.
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