V/A – The Walls Are Whispering… Vol. III

The third and final part of the trilogy “The walls are whispering…” has recently been released by the Belgian label EE Tapes. This compilation series is devoted to ambient, drones and other experimental sounds. I have not heard the previous two parts, but according to the label this is “maybe the most adventurous one of the series”.

The packaging is superb: the cd comes in a grey-coloured 7″ sleeve with abstract landscape photos printed in gold. 12 artists are involved, including some respectable names like Oren Ambarchi, Contagious Orgasm, Seth Nehil and Fear Falls Burning (a project related to vidna Obmana). But there are also various contributing acts which are completely unknown to me.

As you can expect, the cd does not contain many accessible songs which you directly notice. Rather, “The walls are whispering…” creates an atmosphere and is suitable to play in the background while reading the newspaper. Sometimes you suddenly look up when the sounds change or a surprising element occurs.

Various tracks consist mainly of minimal drones, like the first track by Shifts. Others are more based on strange samples and field recordings, like ‘Moth tongue’ by M Northam. There are also noisier contributions, like the piece by Acid_Soma. The tracks that made the most impression on me were the ones by Fear Falls Burning (atmospheric guitar drones), Felix Kubin (an electronic soundscape full of tension) and Azymbol (a dirty noisy piece with a dark ambient ending). A recommended compilation which showcases a nice variety of experimental electronic sounds.

artist:
label: EE Tapes
details: cd, 13 tracks. limited to 525 copies.