Augsburg, Germany-based experimental composer Markus Mehr’s WATERSHED EP transforms recordings from the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into a stark sonic document of a world in crisis. Originally developed for a sound installation within a historic tower in Mehr’s hometown, the project centers on found audio captured on the seventh, fifteenth, and seventeenth days of the war, preserving traces of events experienced from afar.
“Day 17” immerses in its haunting, nocturnal soundscape, where ghost-like resonance melds with simmering electronic tones, attaining a more effervescent glow by midpoint as the unsettling sounds continue to intertwine. The track is riveting in its dichotomies between heavy swells and a subdued send-off, concluding into a gentle sort of chiming. The ensuing “Day 15” is similarly gripping in its shifts between haunting, quivering intrigue and doses of intensity, here emerging into the two-minute turn, in resembling a blaring machine or train of sorts.
“White Dove Black Sky” is another standout, inventive in its initial sampling of an animalistic whimper and crackling sound effects, exuding audible chaos. The mix between found-sound spaciousness and clanking vigor is resonant, while EP finale “Day 7” does well in touting both cathedral-esque organ resonance and foreboding momentum. The four tracks on WATERSHED craft unforgettable soundscapes steeped in emotion and anguish, resulting in a wholly captivating listening experience from Markus Mehr.
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“White Dove Black Sky” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
