DEAD RAVEN CHOIR and NEVER PRESENCE FOREVER - Rozrywa Szwy Ciszy
Music constructed by NEVER PRESENCE FOREVER from source material provided by DEAD RAVEN CHOIR. CD-R released in an edition of 200 copies by Somnambulant Records. All titles are taken from autumn poems by Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński.

The bellringer will come forth - wrinkled like autumn earth - and pull the long legs of hanged men like a rope
Under the lost-in-thought grave of clouds, over leaves like bloody tears
Arks carry the heads of decapitated moons to the other shore
Wings torn from ravens line the streets where the dead walk
Into autumn I flow smaller with every step, into fields sown with specters, into columns of dead paeans

EEEI Datasmasher release database
Author: moron
June 15, 2004
This latest disc from Somnambulant sports essay length song titles that on the surface could be mistaken for the track names from the lastest Impaled Moon Forest piss taking they are so ridiculously grandiose. It's only after reading the small print that it becomes clearer as far as the intent, the titles being yanked from the poetry of Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski. Sadly, that's a reference lost on me but one precious fact is not: this collaboration effort between Dead Raven Choir and Never Presence Forever be one hypnotic dose of neo-classical tinged darkness.
There are 5 tracks on offer here with the total running time unfortunately only 34 minutes (very long EP or terse album, your choice). All the pieces share a mostly uniform structure and palette with main differentiation occurring via focus on that percussive or melodic. The foundation of the tracks is built up via multiple layers of thronging - pitched down piano or tuned rods reversed and layered to create a perpetual hum. Shaped noise also meanders in and out, swells of amplitude more common than filtering though both make an appearance. On top of this thick churning, percussion is introduced via the clank of tools, the calling of chimes and struck wood all heavy with reverberation and dust. Melodic content is formed from what sounds like real world strings with technique limited mostly to slow bowing and and effects tweakage.
It's all very solemn and respectful, the latter element coming as if from a medieval past whose lineage lays closer to the cradle of civilization than northern shores. The compositions are not at all static with steady movement but that said, the allowed framework is well established within the first few minutes. This is not problem (not at all) but it does mean that if your impatience is inversely proportional to velocity, there are no steep hills here to steady your nerves.
Comparison-wise, this release makes me picture Andrew Liles trying to creep out Aidan Baker at a Pholde gig. It has an implied darkness to it but due to the steady pace and smooth surfaces, it gives off a doomish stillness despite the occasional set of armour sent tumbling down an exposed well shaft. It's really quite a beautiful recording and the only slight I can generate is a complaint about length (I want more). I just don't recommend copying it for your friends lest you get carpel tunnel syndrome transcribing the epic length song titles.

Feast Of Hate And Fear
May 4, 2004
This is no split release, as I must admit I previously thought it was going to be. Instead we get an actual five song collaboration between two great musicians (noisicians?), the Polish by way of Texas (or is it the other way around?) Dead Raven Choir (Smolken) and Virginia's Never Presence Forever (Andrew Anti.5). The inspiration for these five songs, as well as the song titles are from Polish poet, Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, who was killed by a sniper's bullet at the age of 23. Strangely, I have a friend in Oregon who keeps me steeped in Polish poetry. I find it abysmally deep, highly symbolic and sometimes too abstract. Nothing anti-Slavic, it's just that my Spanish ears prefer the sounds of death coming from lost loves, rather than lost wars. Still, this is an excellent collaboration, not to mention release, that did twist my ears. Lush, quiet drones and hums, with some apocalyptic folk cello and violin. Organic, wood and string instruments meet push buttons and hundreds of feet of intertwined wires emitting from the backs of samplers. Good music for meditation if you're summoning Tibet's Great Black Lord. My favorite track was number four, "Wings Torn from Ravens Line the Streets Where the Dead Walk", as it was quiet, but also slightly violent, abrasive and close to pure power electronics. Plus, the strange and warped Polish spoken word helped solidify the bleak feelings these songs can invoke. This Somnambulant Records release comes packaged like an invitation to a dark pagan wedding (large, nicely printed insert card - handmade). Limited to 200 copies, so get a move on! I hear there may even be a part two someday. I'm looking forward to it.

Worm Gear
June 21, 2004
Author: Scott
This is a CDR collaboration between these two unique projects with a focus on the poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski who was killed in Warsaw, Poland by a sniper in 1944. There are 5 tracks here bringing together Eastern European folk influences, with warm drones and cryptic electronics. The creamy grit and sickly moan of a slowly drawn cello combined with the darkened textures is a really evocative mix, especially when set against the track titles. Taken from the said poets work the titles include, "Wings Torn From Ravens Line The Streets Where The Dead Walk," and "Arks Carry The Heads Of Decapitated Moons To The Other Shore." The drifting atmospherics are subtle, but fluid, rooted in low frequency and accented with delicate hums, buzzes, wriggling electronics and the wilting string accompaniment. There are guttural accented spoken vocals that appear on the fourth track as well with great effect. It's a hallucinatory melting of open skies and open grave. Spacious yet foreboding and spoiled; the tracks are not dense with sound, and so every detail rings through clearly and the understated shifts work like a slight of hand trick. This is really outstanding and unique in the environment it builds, given what is presented here it would be a shame if these two projects didn't revisit their cooperation down the road.

Chain DLK
June 2, 2004
Rating: 3.5/5
Author: Marc Urselli-Schaerer
When two characters like, Dead Raven Choir, a.k.a. Smolken, an exiled Polish anti-Communist prolific folk-psyche-noise artist, and Never Presence Forever, an equally prosperous American noister, get together, you know it outta be weird sounding. And of course Somnambulant records is alwasy attentive of such heretic and shadedly grimy collaborations and put this out as a 200 copies limited edition CD-R in an elegant and unholy DVD-size plastic sleeved handmade textured hard-paper sheet. Musically the latter of the two noisicians seems to have taken over, for the most part, as you'll hear deep and murky drones, noises, distortions, voices much more than you'll actually hear acoustic instruments, exception made for traces of lush string instruments in the distant background. Reverb halls, dismal atmospheres, eerie noises, nightmarish voices and long track titles (written in Polish and in English) make up this interesting 5 track release, which was inspired by the short-lived poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, shot at the age of 23 by a German sniper during 1944's uprising of Warsaw.

Aural Pressure
Author: NYR
This collaboration between Polish-born Smolken of Dead Raven Choir and American drone-athanor Never Presence Forever groans like a rickety tumbrel on its way to the gallows. Inspired by the dead Polish poet, Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, whose symbolic poems captured the individual tragedy and romanticism was untimely slain through the sights of a German sniper in 1944, Warsaw.
A line of verse marks each agonized track blending the smothering drones and pendent grieving folk instrumentation. Cello sighs openly to mandolin tears under turgid swells throughout the first track, one of the more organic and memorable laments on the album. Fumaroles of oscillating hum and soughing tremolo of distorted cello evoke more saturnine temperament in track two leading the path to noisier forays in track three where shimmering noise and chaotic metalled clangour of stringed instrument further the procession. Vocal fragments from Smolken agglutinate the soft white noise generator of track four before the cavernous finale thrumming with reverberant bass.
Released in a limited edition of 200 in a DVD size hand-made card slip in plastic sheaf.

StillBorn Extreme Music Zine
June 2004
Cosa puň venir fuori da una collaborazione fatta tra un manipolatori di suoni e un rumorista folk d'avanguardia? ..un disco fantastico!!
..dall'incontro tra Dead Raven Choir e Never Presence Forever viene fuori questo "Rozrywa Szwy Ciszy", inspirati dalle opere del poeta polacco Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski morto a soli 23 anni a Varsavia nel 1944 sotto le pallottole tedesche..
..che dire di quest'opera fantastica? un viaggio attraverso l'oscuritŕ e la desolazione, un cello torturato che emana vibrazioni metalliche.. drone ipnotici dispersi su desolati sentieri, carichi di tristezza.. un viaggio tra fantasmi, relitti bellici, avanguardie espressioniste e frammenti di dolore.. un opera poetica, triste, senza speranza come le opere di Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski..
..5 tracce.. sui 6 minuti in media, l'ascolto č facile, il tutto č calmo, ma trascinante e appagante, nel suo essere scarno e minimale, questo lavoro nasconde tante piccole gemme che valgono la pena di essere raccolte col passare degli ascolti per goderne della propria bellezza.. consigliato a tutti gli amanti di sonoritŕ ambientali, minimali e sperimentali..

Heavy Music Portal
June 17, 2004
Rating: 78/100
Author: Michele -Xyphias- Giorgi
Dalla collaborazione tra Never Presence Forever e Dead Raven Choir nasce, su Somnambulant Records, questo concept album basato sulla malinconia della stagione autunnale ed ispirato all’opera del poeta polacco Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, ucciso a soli ventitré anni durante la sommossa di Varsavia. Il suono č una colata metallica manipolata dal fabbro Never Presence Forever, in cui l’elemento drone viene dilatato e mutilato a riportare in vita la tensione poetica e la crepuscolare natura della stagione. Su questa base si stacca il violoncello di Dead Raven Choir, anch’esso torturato e sofferente testimone di inquietudini esistenziali e mutamenti dell’animo. Il Pathos e l’impatto emotivo che le composizioni riescono a comunicare rendono questo cd un’opera estremamente riuscita, catapultando l’ascoltatore in una dimensione surreale ed angosciante. Dal punto di vista strettamente musicale, l’impatto dei lunghi drone e dell’impianto noise segna profondamente l’album, presentandoci una coltre di suoni pesanti come macigni, eppure mai eccessivamente invadenti, quasi si temesse di snaturare eccessivamente la natura delle composizioni. Nella quarta traccia appare brevemente una voce recitante in lotta per emergere dal suono magmatico che la circonda e destinata con esso a spegnersi in un drammatico silenzio. Il giudizio finale su questa collaborazione non puň che essere positivo, mostrandoci un ben riuscito esempio di creazione a piů mani capace di sfuggire ogni frammentarietŕ, al contrario donando una sensazione di omogeneitŕ e coesione non semplice da riscontrare in un lavoro a piů firme. Decisamente una buona occasione per accostarsi a qualcosa di differente dal solito.

Kronic
June 8, 2004
Rating: 3/5
Author: Aldo Volpe
Ritorna l’americana Somnambulant Recordings con un altro CDr molto interessante in bilico tra noise sperimentale e dark ambient oscurissima ed impenetrabile. Never Presence Forever e Dead Raven Choir firmano una collaborazione basandosi sul lavoro del poeta polacco Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski, un breve quanto espressivo mantra sonoro di difficile catalogazione ed ascolto. Le sonoritŕ proposte da questo lavoro (accompagnato al solito da una grafica spartana ma curatissima) si abbandonano a foschi ed imprendibili drones, generando tiepide atmosfere tra occhi sbarrati e bocche cucite dal terrore. In “Under The Lost” l’aria si fa satura di ambienti piů rumoristici mentre ampi e lunghi passaggi di oscura death ambient vela l’ascolto di “Arks Carry…” che precede il denso tappetto di “Wings Torn From Ravens…”, drones e suoni minimali in sottofondo. Decisamente di non facile ascolto per il suo alto tasso di suoni scheletrici e per la sua struttura scarna, paesaggi brulli, privi di ogni accenno di vita umana e vegetale. Ma non per questo privo di momenti ed atmosfere interessanti, istanti che bloccano luci ed ombre di luoghi immobilizzati dalle pesanti orchestrazioni industriali della coppia Dead Raven Choir e Never Presence Forever.