Siavash Amini and Eugene Thacker Dissolve Language Into Pure Sound on Songs for Sad Poets Vol. III
Some records reward you for paying close attention to the lyrics. Songs for Sad Poets Vol. III dares you to try and then quietly takes that option away from you, which turns out to be the entire point. This is the third volume in the ongoing collaboration between Tehran-based composer Siavash Amini and Brooklyn-based theorist and writer Eugene Thacker, and it is their most conceptually audacious yet — three lengthy pieces, each dedicated to a “cursed poet”: Hàn Mặc Tử, João da Cruz e Sousa, and Nikolaus Lenau.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: There isn’t a conventional low end to speak of here — instead, density comes from vocal mass, with Amini reportedly layering up to forty voices at a time into a single passage. The Spatial Dynamics: Those layered voices are processed until their vocal signposts diffuse entirely, creating a sense of space that feels less like a room and more like a fog you’re standing inside.
Standout Performance
Thacker’s writing is the record’s engine, even though — or precisely because — you can barely make out a word of it. His compressed poetry is fed into Amini’s processing until it becomes “sung by voices, but unrecognizable as words, and unintelligible even as voices,” per Bandcamp Daily’s description, and that tension between meaning and dissolution is what makes the whole thing work.
Track Highlights
⚡ “Leprous Doubt (for Hàn Mặc Tử)” sets the template: a slow accumulation of voice-mass that never quite coheres into language.
🌈 “Dead Eyes, Dark Stars (for Nikolaus Lenau)” closes the record on its most texturally overwhelming note, forty voices reduced to a single held breath.
This is not background listening. It asks a lot and gives back more.