Pardis Nikbakhsh - Cave/Screech

Released: July 30

Released in two parts, Cave and Screech tell one continuous story of plans upended by devastating news. Cave was originally intended to be a project accompanying a bedtime story, was re-contextualized later on.  While Cave was being finished, Birmingham sound artist Pardis found herself being diagnosed with cancer, which prompted the creation of the second part of this two-part series Screech. Depending on which order you hear them in, the context changes slightly. Having heard Cave first, I found it to be a rather slow and disorienting piece with sounds that make smart use of the stereo space they are placed in. It seems to be divided into three roughly distinct parts with the beginning of it being rather sparse and quiet, using small sounds that have a certain "wet" quality to them. The subsequent sections seem to begin the same way but both slowly build up into fuller arrangements, but the strangeness and the swirling feeling persist throughout, painting a lurid picture with small bright spots that feel unnerving in context.  

While Cave is a bit more vague and open to interpretation, Screech is much more clear in its message. The field recording of the hospital ambiance and the spoken words clearly convey the message throughout, even though the speech itself is not ever present. But the use of silence in certain moments is quite powerful. After vocally realizing the reality of her situation, there is a few seconds of complete silence that really punctuates the moment. Then, an ambient sound like wind blowing on a rooftop slowly rises and gives an mental image of gray skies with a dim city underneath them. The sound is then manipulated, swirled around, and combined with a gentle twinkling sound, almost like the sounds of the thoughts themselves. We are finally brought back with a gentle and lonely sounding "hello" as the piece ends softly. It feels so honest and forthcoming, especially for a subject so intensely powerful and personal.