EQUATIONS OF ETERNITY

  1/  The Collector                              (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    6.48
  2/  Eons Geography                             (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    5.50
  3/  5th Element                                (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    5.35
  4/  Loa                                        (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    6.31
  5/  Stream                                     (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    5.52
  6/  Shadow Sewer                               (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    7.43
  7/  Fifty Gates                                (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    4.33
  8/  Descent                                    (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    5.47
  9/  Slow Bleed                                 (Bernocchi,Harris,Laswell)    5.51

          Created at Verba Corrige Studio, Milan, Italy, The Black Box, Birmingham,
            UK and Greenpoint Studio, Brooklyn, NY, October 1995 to September 1996
          Greenpoint Studio engineering: Robert Musso
          Mixed by Eraldo Bernocchi
          Produced by Eraldo Bernocchi for WordSound
          Mastered through The Stack by Eraldo Bernocchi
          Material Inc.: John Brown

Eraldo Bernocchi: electronics, programming, treated guitars; Bill Laswell: bass, interstellar influence; Mick Harris: electronics, programming.

          1996 - WordSound (USA), WSCD015 (CD)

REVIEWS :

What's interesting in Laswell productions, is maybe this faculty to create musical unexpected meetings with famous musicians who come from different ways. But here, Laswell is not the mentor of the E.O.E project. Eraldo Bernocchi is (he's credited for the production and the mix). The originality of this record is the collusion (or collision ?) between Laswell and Harris musical personalities. For me, E.O.E. is not a 'supergroup' with three members, but a duet (Bill and Mick) conducted and programmed by Eraldo. Of course, Harris and Laswell know each others for a long time, but Bernocchi has the talent to show us some sides that were hidden in their previous collaborations. E.O.E. is a crucial release because I can find all the things I like : scorn-like beats, a groovy elastic bass, dark and dense ambience and more. Scorn being funky or Material definitively lost in a dub-hop translation? The equation is solved ...

Alain Haas

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The first outing under the Equations of Eternity banner again pairs up Bill Laswell and Mick Harris with help from Sigillum S' Eraldo Bernocchi, who previously worked with Harris on the 'Overload Lady' drum 'n bass excursion. Anyone familiar with Scorn's output over the last couple years will immediately recognize Harris' studied, spare beat programming and his disembodied samples. The same goes for the very up-front Laswellian bass lines, which on a few songs are treated with a good amount of wah (achieving an uncanny Bootsy Collins effect on the track "Fifty Gates.") Eraldo Bernocchi adds electronics that are mostly complimentary to Mick's, and guitar that would never be recognized as such unless he was credited for it.

The album has a decidedly mystical theme to it - complete with Aleister Crowley quote on the sleeve - and certain parts of the beat mainframe sound a lot more indigenous/tribal than what I'm accustomed to from Mick Harris. The album opens with a plaintive monk's chant, and the drones that follow are of a quality that evokes wide-open spaces rather than urban paranoia. Adding to the mystical angle are tracks like "Loa" which exhibit a strong vodoun influence.

A high point of this album is that it manages to be reverent of the universal knowledge it conveys without reverting to cliches in presentation and technique. It seems as though all the participants honestly want to sculpt a 21st-century sacred music, and are aware that they can't do so just by slapping some machine beats on top of a soloing didgeridoo. Like the best in sacred or ritual music, EOE has a physical impact, is loaded with tone color and isn't intrusive. It's a standout disc in the already impressive Wordsound catalog.

Tom K. Bailey

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I've found that Aleister Crowley has had very strange effects on those who have eoncountered his works, so the fact that this album sounds so dark and mystical should come as no surprise. Thick and syrupy, low and scary, it's just what the world needs more of. If you're familiar with Mr. Laswell's production work, you've got an idea of how about 60% of the core sounds, but it's Mr. Bernocchi's influence that makes the other 40% stand proud. Can't quite put my finger on it, but the music has an incessant, forward drive; a capitulation of some great inner secret. It has the feel of a Tool of Learning, but having not yet achieved a sufficient Grade, I cannot say what it is that it teaches. But Tools are meant to be used, not described, so give WordSound a ring and they'll forward one to you.

Dan Foley (courtesy of the Ambience For the Masses website)