Sonologyst – Dust Of Human Race (Album – Eight Tower Records)
Genre/Influences: Experimental, Abstract, Dark-Ambient.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Eight Tower Records’ owner (division of Unexplained Sounds Group) and composer Raffaele Pezzella strikes back with a new opus of his sonic brainchild Sonologyst. The album is driven by the perception of death throughout the eyes and philosophy of different cultures.
Content: Sonologyst remains fascinated by the manipulation of sounds and noises. We’re moving throughout sonic corridors filled with dense, dark atmospheres. It’s a freaky experience accentuated by icy sound treatments of analogue gear. A few guests contributed to the work; so you’ll hear organ play, which is the perfect sound to get connected with death. Screams of horror, church bells, and mysterious chants are accentuating the mystic voyage of Sonologyst.
+ + + : Sonologyst creates a free-style, which is not always easy to catch and define, but it’s a singular experience in sound. The sonic treatments and manipulations sound more like the work of a sound alchemist instead of a musician. But I’m nearly sure Pezzella doesn’t consider himself a ‘musician’…. I like the darkness hanging over this album, but also the sophisticated sonic puzzle created by the artist and which comes mainly through in the title-track opening this work.
– – – : Sonologyst doesn’t compose the most accessible sound, but here again it all feels it’s not the goal of the artist. Two first tracks of the work are the best ones so I’m missing a few more highlights for the rest of the production.
Conclusion: Pure sound exploration based around a fascinating theme for a mystic sound trip.
Best songs: “Dust Of Human Race”, “Teatro Grottesco”.
Rate: 7.
Artist: www.facebook.com/sonologyst
Label: www.facebook.com/eighthtowerrecords
About Sonologyst
Sonologyst is the solo project of the Italian sound artist Raffaele Pezzella, who also runs the Unexplained Sounds Group network and its Eighth Tower Records division. He described the project’s “scientific sonic documentary” approach in the April 2020 ‘Click Interview’ with Raffaele Pezzella.
Side-Line has reviewed the project since “Electrons: A Scientific Essay” (2017), followed by “Silencers: The Conspiracy Theory Dossiers” (2018) and “Phantoms” (2019), both reviewed on CD, and in 2020 Ancient Death Cults And Beliefs on Cold Spring and “Unexplained Sounds”.
“Dust Of Human Race” was released on 5 February 2021 on Eighth Tower Records as a CD and download. The six tracks are “Dust Of Human Race”, “Teatro Grottesco”, “Avidyā”, “Maléfice”, “The Prayer” and “Chiangimuerti”; Michael Bonaventure plays organ on “Teatro Grottesco”, Ellen Southern contributes voice and bowed psaltery to “Maléfice” and Alvaro Rosso double bass to “Chiangimuerti”. The cover carries a quotation from Ovid. Later releases include Interdimensional (2022) and Shortwave Spectrum (2023), both on Cold Spring, and the 2025 double CD built on NASA space probe signals.
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