African Ghost Valley (AGV) is a Canadian/European duo, existing since 3 years. Their output rate is fairly prodigious: just in 2017, they have published 5 EPs, receiving support, among others, from Trevor Jackson and Graham Dunning. Their sound is that of rooms filled with eerie soundscapes – a sort of recursive field recording.
AKI is the name of their next EP, out on SOVN on 09/01/2018. AGV describe this work as a revisitation of “the old theme of discovering and exploring an unknown (for us) island..”. This theme stems from literary inspirations such as Pierre Boule’s “The Planet of Apes” and William Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”. The feeling of alienation and discovery, common to both books, is expressed in AKI by the contrasts between field recordings and deep synth tones. These elements create a paradoxical space, like the one a time traveler would visit: a space populated by mirages mixed with real objects.
In AKI, as most of their previous works, AGV use wisely noise and drones. Melodic hunches, and sudden violent passages, aim for a faithful representation of this artificial space. Because of the ever-present sense of alienation, its kernel is never explicitly reached by the listeners – we always feel like outsiders in this space.
“We never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries”
Robinson Crusoe
released January 9, 2018
