APEIRON

Apeiron, the end is the beginning, death is birth, nothingness is everything.

旣 Apeiron (FPRS008), by Taiwanese artist Cheng Daoyuan should only be purchased with currency issued by the Bank of Hell.
Its waves of distortion crash into, and over one another; buried tones are barely visible in a dark sea of fuzz and decay, occasionally drifting towards the surface to groan.
The conflict is between fried digital clouds and stable notes and rare chords. Sometimes, when a bass note or overdriven drum detonates,
it temporarily overshadows other sounds, before they swirl back to the forefront.

At times the sheer amount of distortion impells one to label these sounds as “dark ambient.”
The second track, 虛見 Hollow in Emptiness, opens with a repeating note like a blown horn, behind which the other competing noises struggle for attention,
perhaps reminiscent of the cultish ritual recordings of Lustmord. In other areas, the distorted bass drums suggest the gabber techno scene, without the frenetic pace.

There are also field recordings here.
They open up the background, combining the paranoid digital tones with false reassurances of open spaces and natural tones.
Haunted voices, cryptic announcements from tannoys and even bird sounds appear on the track 落芽 Lamella Cries, before being overwhelmed by sludgy toneclouds,
and finally a pattern of telegraph taps that fades over into the next track.

旣 Apeiron is structured into three chapters, each of which have their own independent themes and changes.
Track eight, 幽示 Divulging, is a collaboration between Daoyuan and the Taiwanese conspiracy psychedelic trio, Mong Tong.
The album also includes remixes that feature interpretations by peers - Wa?ste, Yearning Kru and Yun Hao.

Contrasts are what Cheng Daoyuan presents.
Throughout this numinous volume, impossible sounds are brought together, like the artificial bleeps meeting somber piano tones on 離界 Eidolon.
These unlikely partners are forced together to compete in an arena of noise – summoned, perhaps, like minor demons.
Here sounds burn, like hellish bank notes - consumed by flames and sent to another, darker realm.