Tegh - Unusual Path

A Closer Listen

Unusual Path is a single, all-enveloping, 20-minute track that melts across an entire side of blue vinyl.  On Side B, Siavash Amini and Zenjungle offer alternate 10-minute versions, one ambient and one drone.  Together, they create an atmosphere for active contemplation.

Tegh‘s original work builds slowly to a focal point, adding density like a person running through a field of burs.  This sounds simple, but it’s incredibly hard to achieve.  In order to keep the attention, the composer must continually add ingredients to the mix.  The rise must be linear without being predictable.  At the same time, the composer must avoid making any jump that would be considered startling.  The longer the track, the harder it is to sustain, which makes “Unusual Path” a superlative example of the micro-genre.  Tegh (Shahin Entezami) starts from an already-thick point, handicapping prospects of making it to the end; but an additional dimension ~ volume ~ helps the sonics to disperse throughout the room.  By the seventh minute, one is already keenly aware of the buildup; two-thirds in, some of the sonics recede, exposing a bank of voices that will eventually be subsumed by the chaos.

Is this an “unusual path?”  The artist purposely keeps the interpretation open.  It’s hard to escape the feeling that the path becomes more difficult as it progresses.  Yet at the end, a goal is reached.  Should one be so inclined, one might view the track as an encouragement for Iran, which continues to teeter on the brink of another unnecessary war.  One might even see the increased density as the increased tension of brinksmanship and bravado.  Or one might apply the metaphor to personal circumstances.  Siavash Amini tells his own story with fewer (sonic) words; the press release speaks of a “twist,” but it’s more of a soft arc.  Then Zenjungle wades into the thicket with something that sounds like battle horns.  The melodic component changes the piece, providing handholds.  There is a way out of this mess, the latter composers imply.  They walk the unusual path that Tegh has walked before them, tramping down the trail so that others may follow more easily.  (Richard Allen)

Available here