Ron Heglin-Tom Djll-Duos for Voice and Runglers; Public Eyesore Records #165, 2025

 

Kind of scary, really, the way in which Ron Heglin and Tom Djll immediately begin the sounds of Duos for Voice and Runglers, their recent CD release on Public Eyesore Records. Deeply singular abstraction is the main menu item on this one, and they serve it up hot from the start. If one figured that a recording made up of sounds produced from "chaotic circuit[s]" as their foremost feature and improvised vocals in a personal language could possibly be a bit terrifying, one would in the cases of most people be correct. Disaster Amnesiac can't say that I was scared exactly, while listening, but more summoned to attention. This latter may have to do with the fact that Ron Heglin and Tom Djll are known qualities to me, as far as listing to music goes; the depth of their musical explorations is at the very least familiar to these ears. Along with the sounds aspect contained within this duo, there is also, dare I say, an intellectual gravitas to them. Put a bit more simply, they're serious about this stuff. Anyway, that's the way that they both came off to me, and fucking hails for it. Yes, the music produced on documents such as Duos can supply the simple fun of diversion from whatever else is occurring in a human life, but along with that ideas are attached. Specifically from Heglin: his performances and cover art contributions explore, with intent, aspects of language and its manifestation within the human experience. He goes deep into too. As stated, dude's serious. The Runglers which Djll utilizes and describes as both precise and unpredictable serve as either a foil or a mirror for the human sounds from Ron. As the latter relays ancient sounding stories from alternate dimensions, the former pushes his instruments into sharp, cutting, and mostly harsh bursts of Noise. What's been striking to Disaster Amnesiac is the absolute control of the sounds which have arrived. Hints of possibly more ambiguous results are given from the press sheet for Duos, but it sounds so very controlled in these quarters. Especially fine is bakinsa, in which high skilled throat singing emerges from the throat of Heglin. Adding to the concision is the relative brevity of the entire disc and its nine tracks. Nothing drags on for too long and that's fine. If you're up for putting in forty five minutes or so of mental effort, you'll not find Duos for Voice and Runglers that intimidating, at least not for too long.