The Amateur Hermetic - Vital weekly #519

It's been about a year without a new Ronnie Sundin CD, whereas in the past he produced many new works. I have no idea why this is, although the information gives some indication: 'a nomadic lifestyle of moving to a new flat every second year, about deeding children and getting lost in occult references and religious doubts, about growing a beard'. Perhaps Sundin has different interests and occupations these days? I also read something about using the recording of ones own voice, so perhaps this album contains just the sound of Sundin's voice, or perhaps voices of others. Like so many of his works, 'The Amateur Hermetic' is just one track, just over forty minutes, and like the previous 'Hagring' (see Vital Weekly 461), this isn't exactly a work of silence and careful crackling, none of the glitch material. But Sundin goes a step further. 'Hagring' had silence in between the various parts of the work, but here he plays an extended piece of drone related material, that is however always forcefully present, but it never gets to the point of complete 'noise'. Sundin builds a clever work, all based on highly processed voice material, which can hardly be recognized as such. Sometimes operating as a dark cloud, sometimes the various elements sparkle of into the wild, but a moment of silence, in the micro-sound sense of the word, is not to be found in here. Although this work might be easier to be accessed as 'Hagring', it's also quite difficult to say what he wants. The listener is shut outside and has to make up his own story to the material. It's hermetically closed. That is however not a problem at all. It leaves much room for suggestion by the listener to find in here whatever he or she thinks is right. Quite strange, but captivating. Sundin once again pulled a new trick out of his hat.