After slowly building a reputation for scene-building with his workmanlike psych-rock band and venue of the same name, Paperhaus, DC’s Alex Tebeleff could be excused for slotting into his comfort zone. He also continues to bust out krauty jams that pack a punch while hosting more curated, under-the-radar shows for bands passing through DC looking for alternative spaces to play.
Instead, Tebeleff has shifted his focus toward modular synths under the moniker Blacklodge. Thus far, he’s produced a trilogy of works for DC’s Blight Records (including the previously released Silencio and Assassin Suite) reflecting on our understandings and perceptions of death. Tiny Mix Tapes is pleased to premiere the third and final release of the trilogy, Will You Be Reduced, in collaboration with vocalist and flautist em.g.
Its three tracks feel something like that hotly debated dinosaur scene in Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life: meditative and lush, yet also unsettling, dark, foreboding. Flutes like birdsongs from the void, synth stabs like footsteps from the demon world bleeding through. Angelic choirs tearing open the fabric of space-time in waves, distinctly ebbing, lapping, water-like. “Unknown,” the third and most substantial track of the release, puts us in the belly of the beast, suggesting an ultimate return to a chasmic womb, a primordial mother where nothing is stable or distinct: the final gasp of breath before the infinite fade to black.
Stream Will You Be Reduced below and visit Blacklodge’s Bandcamp to stream and purchase the trilogy.