Thorn1, the project of Russian electronic musician Evgeny Zheyda, debuted
with the noisescape of the mini-album Noises (2006) and the more melodic
EP Thorn1 (2008).
His first album, So Far As Fast (Silber, 2010), merges
industrial music, post-rock,
Scandinavian "cold wave" of the 1990s and black metal without the metal.
The zombie-like recitation over grand organ chords of Organiq Grostee
segues into the disorienting loop of Drone.
Light blastbeats and guitar overtones populate the brief We Are Frozen,
one of the most surreal experiments.
The eight-minute Safe Trip turns to narrative form, with a fractured
guitar babbling something in between riff and melody and another guitar
emitting wavering psychedelic signals.
Snow Is Abstract is a seven-minute poem for shifting drones.
The eleven-minute Why Am I Here So Distant From My Old Life releases
slow-moving ambient clusters of string-like drones mixed with an exoteric chant.
Several pieces feel like non-sequitur amateurish bedroom experiments, but the
ones that work reveal a brainy talent with enough ideas for multiple albums.
disjointed piano notes
This was followed by the EP Oblivion (2011) and by
the 33-minute remix of O on the "single" Fractal Trees (2011),
a massive organ-like drone that guitar distortions and drumming take to another
(cosmic) level.
The Light of Random Star (Silber, 2014) sounds like the typical
"transitional work" that works best when the artist sticks to his fortes
but at the same time toys with new forms.
Hence the anthemic shoegaze-pop Clearly and Consciously next door to
the eight-minute spaced-out free-folk elegyIt's Easy to See You Drift Away
and to the cosmic reggae instrumental Vortex Gravity.
Unfortunately most of the pieces sound redundant or half baked, wasting energies
in the inept dance music The Color of Your Eyes and unable to breathe
life into the wall of noise of Heat Death of the Universe.
The Leave of Leaves (2016)
