Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot

Daniel AIU Higgs

Thrill Jockey

2007-07-09

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Folowing Aki Tsuyuko’s Hokane, the second in Thrill Jockey’s series of impressive 6” by 8” hardback book/CD packages is Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot from Lungfish frontman Daniel AIU (Arcus Incus Ulalat) Higgs. The release includes six new compositions and nearly fifty pages of accompanying art and poetry.

The Yggdrasil is the gigantic and powerful ash tree from Norse mythology which links the different cosmological worlds together. The grouping of the Yggdrasil alongside the Tarot therefore builds an impression of something mysterious, spiritual and cosmic, with the suggestion of power added through the “Atomic” prefix. It comes as no surprise then that both the music offered within the CD and the images and word-play found within the pages of the book have a mysterious, spiritual and cosmic edge. At times the music is a real sonic assault, though at times it is melodic and engaging, similarly there is a range within the poetic acronyms sited on the opposite pages of each colour artwork from the playfully comic to the obtuse, random or the controversial. Also the artworks vary between ultra simplistic monochromes to more detailed images and between dark moods and arrays of bright poster vibrancy.   

The essence of the music is an improvised, exploratory and repetitive, broken drone of noise which kind of draws you in if you can put up with it. It requires an amount of patience in the listener which it is easy to tell that some wont be inspired to give, although there is much to offer here for the listener who not just appreciates the dirge of the lo-fi recording quality but who openly embraces the idea of the noise and can see and sit through it to find the beauty within, behind and beyond it. Six tracks, varying in length from around three to twelve minutes, all with titles nearly as obscure, suggestive, and, well cosmic as the project title (“Luminous Carcass Ornament”, “Cocoon on the Cross” and “Creation Moon” for example) present in the main a single distorted instrument — at various points guitar, jews harp, piano, banjo — playing around with riffs and leading off where the moment takes them. There are points where the music is created is just harsh, but then there are also points which touch on the work of John Fahey, Jim O’Rourke or Segovia, and perhaps even Steve Reich. The lo-fi tape manipulation of “Spectral hues” for instance, offers much of interest in the way it works fragmented piano into nethereal melodies or drones. 

when it’s elusive it is almost more interesting for that fact

Reminding of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain, the artworks seem to jump off from the colour and form of the Tarot, as well as from various religious imagery — appearing symbolically rooted, though not easily decipherable. And the text next door is not the anchoring subtitle which some may desire either. Human/animalistic deviations merged with flames and shapes made from dots stand next to acronyms such as:

PERFECT
EXTINCTIONS
AS
CORPSES
ENTWINE

Although some images appear to relate in a more easily-linkable way — the first image being an grey egg shape on a black background, containing thirteen gravestone shaped black symbols with the accompanying acronym:

DEVILS
ESTABLISH
ABSOLUTE
TRUTH
HERE

It’s a visual treat, and a stimulating read. At points it is comic, at others pertinent or poignant and when it’s elusive it is almost more interesting for that fact. There are indeed points where the music can be grating and it’s simplistic quality can veer from sounding inspired to something at the oppsite end of the spectrum but the good parts and the project as a whole more than make up for that and what Atomic Yggrasil Tarot comes to form is a fascinating and inventive package, bringing together sometimes opposing and drastically separate artistic forms into one, digestibly accessible platform for which credit should be given — both to Thrill Jockey as well as to Daniel AIU Higgs.