Description

Queens Of The Circulating Library stands alongside Time Machines and Nurse With Wound s Soliloquy For Lilith as a post-industrial pinnacle of sensory-warping long-form drone. Crafted by the distilled duo of Thighpaulsandra and John Balance, the 49-minute piece unfurls in swirling, cyclical waves, tidal as much as textural, channeling the spirit of levitational minimalism pioneered by La Monte Young. Touted as the first part in a continually mutating series of circulating musickal compositions upon it s initial release in 2000, the album remains a compelling case study in Coil s exceptional capacity for mutation and extremes.The theatrical introductory monologue delivered by Thighpaulsandra s mother – a career opera singer, in her 80 s at the time of recording – sets the stage for a grandiose ascension. Written by Balance, the text is declamatory but dreamlike, refracted through megaphone echo: Return the book of knowledge Return the marble index File under Paradox The forest is a college, each tree a university. As her voice fades, the lulling synthetic infinity deepens, congealing into transient crests of volume and haze, like slow-motion surf misting in moonlight. Thighpaulsandra describes their aesthetic intention as a bliss out, static but shape-shifting, an amniotic drift towards an eternal vanishing point. A supreme sonic embodiment of the slogan on the sleeve of Time Machines, two years prior: Persistence is all.

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