Cassette Review // Nour Sokhon & Stefan Christoff "Beyond All Borderlines" (Ruptured Records)

https://rupturedthelabel.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-all-borderlines

We begin with an audio clip and then it turns into this magical droning air.   It just feels like we've opened up the clouds and ascended into Heaven.    Electronic beeping comes in now and we're somewhere between a cash register and dial up modem.  I can hear the piano coming into all of this now, like a world of technology with something so natural coming through.  

Whirrs lead us into the next song, sort of post rock, as we get these piano parts and crackle.   Those modem sounds return again, as this one turns into a bit of technology.   The piano becomes intense, trying to overpower this feeling of drilling and rattling chains.   This has such a strange mix of chaos in what sounds like a drill- just having that sort of sound you might hear walking down the street- combined with what could be the classical piano piece played inside of a giant room where tickets cost more than walking down the street.

Tones come in now and whirr to end the song a bit in space, as if aliens were coming.   The next track begins with that audio clip and magic synth.   There is a build to it.   "I seemed sleeping while awake" is something said that can also pertain to this sound.   The pitter-patter of balls now as voices come through without words and those pianos come back to reflect.   It can sound as if the person is saying "Are you here now" but something different, so I looked to see if that was a song title and found out that Nour Sokhon is doing the voice not an audio clip as I had thought up until now.

A rattling, like the dragging of metal on concrete as the piano plays with a calculated fury.  Words are behind all of this with some skipping electronics.   It can drop down to just the sound of the piano and then the voice returns with what remind me of rain.   The rattling is back in the next song now with what sounds like a conversation with it.  I can also hear another voice in here asking "Where are you from", which is a song title.  This reminds me a bit of Andrea Pensado.   The piano comes in and seems to set everything solemn.

This crackling comes in, like the crunching of leaves are just eating something hard- like maybe a lollipop being crushed.   Into this Ghostbusters-like frequency now on the next song and big, thundering footsteps come down.  The piano joins in and it just sounds like someone is washing ashore while at the same time banging, as one might on a railroad (John Henry).   The banging becomes steady, like percussion.   It has that power though, where it feels like everything around it is just falling apart and the piano plays along.

That rattling like a glass bottle starts off Side B and then the piano comes in, takes over, and is joined by the glass once again.   The sound of a shaker is now in here as well, to replace the glass.   The piano seems to be guiding this one.   A voice comes in at the end, like a ghost, and then the next song begins with an ambience and vocals.  The piano plays as the voice asks "Why are you here", which is not a song title.  A little bit of a squish sound and then that metal detector goes off.

More mechanical banging starts the next song now and there is a voice along with it.   This feels like percussion destruction and then the piano comes in to soothe it.   Along with echoes, the voice is coming through chopped up and this one just feels like a descent into madness.   The question returns: "Why are you here"  This begins to feel like we're being hypnotized, put into that deep sleep, and then being asked this question so that we can wake up with a sense of purpose.

Sonar comes through to begin the next song with a soft engine purr.   This keeps a steady pace but can also cut through with that frequency which would upset a dog.   Speaking now feels like the message on an airplane but I'm not sure because I haven't flown in decades.   The piano pushes through the putter of the motor and a squealing comes through with the question "Where are you from" being asked.   Pianos build up the next song strongly with the sounds of some small rodent or possibly the rubber of a balloon.   This song feels uplifting in a non-traditional way.

As the singing comes in near the end of the song, it might be asking "Where are you from" backwards just because I think it starts with "morph".    When at the end of this cassette, I can't help but think about how every sound outside of the piano just feels like we're dancing around in the middle of a tornado- just watching the world collapse before our very eyes.  And at the same time, that piano is the idea of someone in the midst of it all just apathetic to it and knowing that if they're going out, they're going out having fun.