OLD PAIN by KEVIN DRUMM + JOACHIM NORDWALL

Kevin Drumm & Joachim Nordwall have, respectively, spent collective decades carving out new pathways in the realms of electroacoustic, drone, ambient, noise, and improvised experimental music. Their variably multiplied ripple effect across the sonorous waters of disruptive sound cultures are indelibly marked by the touch of these two artists. Neither being strangers to intensive collaborations, the two stalwarts of meditative sonic practice convene to offer Psychic Liberation the eight song album Old Pain. At just under an hour, the pair shine in a complementary fashion across perfectly constructed chapters pulling from their signature tool kits of atmospheric field recordings, tape loops, and pensive oscillations. Cautiously sharing space, the album is at times as brooding as it is transcendent.

Old Pain is an album nearly two decades in the making. Beginning in 2006, Drumm and Nordwall endeavored to record together in Chicago, a session ultimately abandoned purportedly due to the influence of “Listening to Finnish Black Metal and drinking good brews”. In 2007, Drumm released the cassette Purge on Nordwalls iconic label IDEAL Recordings. Later ,in 2013, Purge was reissued on CD for IDEAL and a subsequent performance together in New York City found the two still in each other's orbit. Later, Kevin would make an appearance in collaboration with Nordwall on his Communication Is The Key Album for Entr’acte in 2019. Whereas previous in-person sessions faltered, Old Pain was the result of the two artists working in their respective winter-heavy geographies of Chicago and Gothenburg, trading files until completion.

Today, Drumm and Nordwall are totems of an era of true advancement in tonal despair. Drumm’s output has been that of mythology, creating some of the most singular works in the canon of experimental music. Nordwall, an equally notable peer as maker, has maintained the global standards and operations of challenging art through his IDEAL Recordings project while performing in solo and collaborative contexts globally. Between the two, it would be a near impossible task to find an iteration of any peer or generation following not touched by the massive cultural imprint they’ve cemented. Finally, with Old Pain, we have a document of two masters of their form able to stretch their legs and pronounce a cohesive gesture of sonic material that will stand to long linger below the surface of comfort.

Label founded in 2013, originally ran with Miguel Alvariño titled Primitive Languages as a cassette and record store project in New York City. Operated solo by Nick Klein since 2019 under the working title Psychic Liberation out of the EU. PL is made possible with the distribution assistance of Fantastique INC USA, Industrial Coast UK, Tobira Records JP, Rope Editions SK, and Stellage Store RU.

psychicliberation.net