Black to Comm: Alphabet 1968

Entrance to Black to Comm’s long player, entitled Alphabet 1968, moves through a corridor of soggy sound, past a child’s whisper and into a wide open space that allows for each ringing piano note to reverberate for as long as it possibly can.

Between the project’s name – which is just a guise for Marc Richter to work under – and its album cover, it would make sense for this particular effort to be a revved up, heavy psych release. It’s not.

Instead what Alphabet 1968 offers is a clutch of tracks that make use of space as much as sound. What’s here, which is tied to a form of music that previously only sprung from uppity academic types and pencil pushing theoreticians isn’t going to sate most music foragers. But as the noise thing slowly melts into all that drones and ambient sounds, Black to Comm as well as Richter’s other projects will probably wind up garnering some attention.

The disc’s opening – much like the rest of the album – focuses on a single sound for a while before moving on. And while the first two tracks make up a tremendous portion of the slab, it’s the transitions between tracks that make this Black to Comm effort something of an interesting spin.

As the whirring effect towards the end of “Jonathan” fades out the track then includes some distant, indecipherable noises that seem to work its way directly into “Forst,” the following track.

The second offering here isn’t at all distant from what preceded it – nor what comes after. And while the disc features mostly ambient sounds, there are two distinct exceptions. That being said, the entirety of the effort so easily moves in and out of itself that at times Alphabet 1968 seems to be a single colossal track.

The first of the melodic tracks is “Trapz.” And while there isn’t too much more than a toy piano being played, edited and looped, the song presents an early – and welcomed – break from the occasionally tedious and plain music. “Trapz” doesn’t present anything too spectacular, but its simplicity is how the track comes off as something beautiful. Of course, before you know it, it’s all over.

A few tracks on, “Musik Für Alle” arrives all twinkling and excited. It sounds as ready for performance art as any other effort here. And while the track might be as suited for the closing credits of your girlfriend’s favorite ro-co (that’s a romantic comedy for ya’ll) as anything else, it’s probably also well crafted for reading or staring out of a window on a rainy afternoon.

Not to get all sappy on you, dear reader, but Richter and his Black to Comm project are a music that should stir something inside of each person that listens. It might not all be that tremendously positive a vibe – and in the wrong ear holes, this might prove to be a pretty sad endeavor. But music, at its best, should be able to elicit emotion. Alphabet 1968 does.