The latest release on Stroom is a collection of largely solo works, put together with a variety of engineers and collaborators, in a variety of small studios. The music either previously unreleased, or made available in highly limited quantities on vinyl or cassette, was produced to scratch a creative itch that started when “non-musician” Kevin Eden witnessed the legendary Sex Pistols gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. The 10-piece retrospective, compiled by Adam Oko and Ziggy Devriendt, contains a diverse range of experimental emissions. From spiky, rhythmic songs – such as The Spirit Moves – forged from fragmented guitar, and heavily influenced by This Heat (Kevin was a friend of the pioneering post-punk band`s Charles Bullen), to the closing keys of November, which mixes the atmosphere of Eno`s Another Green World with muted brass. 

In between there are more abstract explorations, involving stories of 28ft tape loops and home-made instruments. These filling the album with an industrial ambience. A soundtrack of static, sampled traffic, “found” dialogue, bells, bleeps and treated new age chimes – all hidden behind gentle explosions of fogged and blurred frequencies. The metal on stone timbres of Cross Track tap out a slow techno ceremony. With circuitry chirruping, spray can-like high hats hissing – it could double for one of Craig Leon`s alien hymns for the Dogon tribe and the Nommos of Sirius B. Another one of the highlights, Hombre, is 7 minutes and 51 seconds of acoustic guitar surrounded by shimmering sonic sheen. The aural equivalent of a sandstorm evolving to engulf its 6-string melody. 

You can order a copy of K.S. Eden’s Passed Beyond directly from Stroom.