Coming from the eclectic set of artists in Russia's Saint Petersburg comes Existential Defeat, the latest single by Fugu Quintet, an eerie yet engulfing listening experience. This dark jazz creation delves deep into the realms of atmospheric fearedness, conjuring a blend of drone elements in a score reminiscent of horror soundscapes.
Unblinking from its start, Existential Defeat ushers in an ominous mood. Deep processed bass bellows under layers of experimental electronics, unsettling undercurrents of lentos in dense fog. The saxophone wails not from a jazz flourish, but a mark of ghostly lament, plying its way through the void with chimed echoes. Music commandeering attention, drawing deeply into the darker reaches of the soul.
Some bits that make the track stand separately are using Tibetan bowls, endlessly recorded through home setups to augment the piece's organic and almost ritualistic feel. There are other things, like the intentionally distant piano motif created in the middle, which calls forth for one to listen to music from another room too, which is the aural illusion so homely that it adds to the eerie ghostliness. And, without warning, the work explodes, in a crazy breakneck climax that kills any semblance of serenity, amplifying its nightmarish intensity.
Existential Defeat is rabid in the abstractness of narrativity yet losing the narrative as an artistic rendition of the band trying to move through difficult times. War and chaos shape their reality here, with the existential hopelessness birthed into something so real, so personal yet so damn spooky for them. A valid catharsis, an avant-garde meditation on transience, endurance, and the omnipresent agony of existence.
Fugu Quintet has created something unusual in the dark jazz realm. Existential Defeat is a testament to the quartet's ingenuity in melding live instrumentation with electronic experimentalism, offering a track whose sonority is like a slow horror movie for the ears. It is an essential listen for fans of bleak sonic soundscapes.
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