Bass Communion is a project dedicated to Steven Wilson's recordings in an ambient, drone, and/or electronic vein. Most of the pieces are experiments in texture made from processing recordings of real instruments and field recordings. The atmosphere of the music has tended towards the dark and melancholic, but expressed with an almost zen like beauty. More recently Wilson has also started working with a guitar and laptop configuration to create fuzzy power drones - the first material in this style will be issued in 2008. So far there have been several full length Bass Communion CDs, vinyl LPs, and singles, many of them issued in handmade or limited editions (which sell out very quickly) in elaborate packaging. The most recent release was the super-low end "Pacific Codex", which contained just one 40 minute piece, issued in a limited edition of 975 copies packaged in a deluxe box set containing a CD, 5.1 surround sound DVDA, and a book.
Bass Communion has collaborated with many leading experimental musicians such as Muslimgauze, Robert Fripp, Fear Falls Burning (on the ongoing Continuum project), Jonathan Coleclough, Colin Potter, Andrew Liles, and several others.
All Bass Communion releases are available direct (some, such as the Dronework CD, excusively so) from SW's own company Headphone Dust mailorder.
There is a full list of Bass Communion releases here.
Brainwashed website (review by Jon Whitney):
"...a dense soup of thunderous roars, crackles and landscapes that are rich with visual imagery. Speakers warble, objects in the room vibrate, earwax loosens, roommates come wandering in, but nothing can disturb the serenity. Ideally, a visual component to be projected on a large screen with superb digital sound would be a great place to experience this amazing album, but for now, we can lie back and dream it ourselves."
Dusted website (review by I Khider):
"....the audio equivalent of an Edgar Allen Poe compendium, ranging from the darkly beautiful to stark bleakness. The bass engulfs and consumes with voracious appetite, easily distorting lesser speakers. Through these powerful rumblings emerge the shrieks of occult creatures and parched creaking bone."
aQuarius recOrds (review by Andee):
"...this is like the ultimate low end document, huge billowing metallic shimmers, deep rib cage rattling rumbles, melodies rendered in slow motion, transformed into glacial smears, the feeling is that of being underwater, but WAY underwater, maybe several miles below the surface, everything inky black, save for a few glowing fish, and stray bits of light that somehow made it down from the surface.
What else to say, drone obsessives will lose their mind over this. This is the sort of record you don't hear as much as you feel."
BabySue (review by LMNOP):
"This is easily one of the most odd and hypnotic instrumental recordings we have heard this century. Even though this music is very subtle and restrained...if you turn it up really, REALLY LOUD...it can have wildly intense effects. Such an EASY top pick for this month... Highly, HIGHLY recommended without reservation...
BC Magazine:
"... a dark, but beautiful ride to the edge of the abyss."
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