Ark Tarp RecordsARK008
Dead Black Arms/Fire SerpentTwo of Copenhagen's finest noise and drone constructors, Dead Black Arms aka Claus Haxholm and Fire Serpent aka Bjørn Puggaard, entwine and submerge into a colorful cauldron where wamth and solace meet frost and distress. This split is a breathtaking stream of minimal, psychedelic sine wave compositions floating slowly in thin air amongst the deep ravines of a barren earth.
Reviews:
"A new split from Ark Tarp that features two of Copenhagen’s droniest artists. Dead Black Arms is Claus Haxholm and Fire Serpent is Bjørn Puggaard, who has put out another release through Ark Tarp under his own name. Dead Black Arms elbows its way past Fire Serpent to start off the disc with one huge twenty-three and a half minute track. It’s a minimal drone that feels like it’s always on the move, going away and then returning, distancing itself and then moving in closer. It reminds me of the loudness of an oscillating fan when it became fainter as it blows away from you and then becomes stronger in volume as it comes back around to you. The track also makes me think of a slow and subtle tumbling of water. More the motion of the drone than the sound in and of itself. The ebb and flow is a steady tossing to and fro that echoes our constant comfort/discomfort and climb/fall in life. It eventually becomes a little overwhelmed with feedback and then calms back down.
The second set of tracks are three from Fire Serpent. What I remember from Bjørn Puggaard when I heard him release material under his common name is that his sound was very dirty, noisy, eccentric, feral, and witty. Here, as Fire Serpent, Puggaard keeps his idiosyncrasies yet in more mature forms. For example, his first track, Naked Skull toddles with some serious seizure-inducing electro fuzz. It’s like drilling, Martian spacecraft, and electric current packed into one drone. It’s steadier and less obnoxiously spastic than I remember some of his earlier tracks being. His second, Mass Psychosis follows in the same vein. This one feels even less wavering and dizzying than the last and more of a constant flow of radiating electro pulsation. The third and final, the fourth total track of the split, Scorched Earth starts off with a lower line of drone like a deep generator and then a shocking quiver writes its own script over top of it. The inscription grows in intensity and then trades its form for what sounds like steady fiery blasts. It then plays out its final moments with the original lower drone but with a little more volume. Overall, an interesting experiment with various textures and sensations that will leave you feeling reprogrammed and live wired.
Again, the highest marks go to Ark Tarp’s physical presentation. They truly know how to mate sound up with visual in pure synaesthetic bliss. It comes in a hand painted cardboard case with paste-on art. Waiting inside are seven hand cut, pro-printed photo inlays that beautifully accompany the audio and serve as a lyric sheet of sorts to translate the heard communications into seen ones. Also included is a text inlay printed on recycled paper that has artist and track information. It’s all bundled together with the disc by string and tucked inside the case. I would personally get this for the design and wonderfully executed package alone. 7/10"
- Foxy Digitalis 2011
"Excellent Danish drone. Dead Black Arms contribute one long piece of gently undulating tone, which will appeal to fans of Gareth Hardwick. Fire Serpent's 3 tracks are more visceral, reminding me of the searing tape delayed flicker drone of Our Glassie Azoth. Handmade packaging."
- Boa Melody Bar 2011
