Nocturnal Requiem by WILT

Originally released by No Part of It Records on Pro-CDR in 2014. Recorded between 2012 and 2013.

Includes four bonus tracks not on the original release.

From the label:

"WILT is James Keeler's main project since the late 90s, and Wisconsin's (now Illinois) best kept secret as far as I'm concerned. The feeling of rural desolation just oozes from these tracks, which maintain or expand on an industrial infused dark ambient sound nicely. There is a sense of brooding, but nothing beyond the residue of anything like a dirge exists. Masterful reverb, factory engines in the distance. Crumbling layers of synth loops being thrown off of a cliff, metallic swamp clang, utter dread and resignation. Keeler's particular take on imaginary horror soundtracks comes off like he's able to walk into an abandoned mental hospital and put all of the essence into a jar without any unnecessary bells and whistles.... or accoutrements of any kind. For those who notice the difference, this work stands alone.

There are definitely a lot of vintage synths somewhere in here, but "80s synth soundtrack" would be too lazy of a tag to place. Lots of little elements comprise a sound where no particular texture is too prominent. It's hard to tell what is a synth and what is processed field recordings of strange insects. The whole album though, could easily fit into those moments of epiphany in a horror movie, where the group of naive and sex-crazed teen day campers/life guards, in their tent in the middle of the night, realize by lantern light that they're trapped with something much stronger than them, and it's something they can't know or see, much less escape from... Moments before the axe comes down. It's hard to explain. There is an unspoken complexity in this artist's body of work. With Keeler's own "Institute for Organic Conversations" label, he's worked with subject matter expanding upon Buckminster Fuller and Lovecraftian ideas, while others are still rehashing the same emotionally stunted, serial killer bullshit.

WILT's releases always are a complete package, as Keeler is not only an accomplished sound artist, but also a graphic artist and visionary. Every detail is attended to. Through his work with various projects; Hedorah, Astronomy, and various collaborations, he's worked with several well-accomplished labels, such as Ad Noiseam, Angle, Phage, Small Doses, Urashima, Danvers State, Chondritic Sound, Cipher, Husk, Bloodlust!, Hospital, RRRecords, Turgid Animal, the list goes on.

Truth be told, WILT was the first noise act I saw live in 2003, and I still remember it fondly. The man did amazing things with a brick and some rusted sheet metal that he'd affixed little knobs to, while a video ran that seemed like a 16mm film that was pressed on dirty church windows. With that said, I'm extremely proud to present this new release and important part in the story of Wilt's body of work."

Review:

"I am staring at a map of the Hunnic Empire around 450AD. The movement of the Huns throughout what is now Europe becomes alive. Their conquests and sufferings burn into your thoughts augmented by Nocturnal Requiem playing as the map animates itself. WILT, the project of James Keeler, is grandiose in scope like the conquest of Attila. For some, like the Huns, beautiful and awakening while others, whose land is fertile, evoke shuddersome feelings of a dire world slipping from their grasps.

Nocturnal Requiem is somewhere near an hour of ambient beauty from bleakness. A sonic world the listener falls into, landing on some isolated outcropping and unable to move or touch anything. The sounds of this world are intense and mysterious and permeate your lonely position from every direction. As the title states, this is a requiem, but all things concerning the repose of dead souls do not have to be bleak or disheartening. Nocturnal Requiem could be heard from a conduit connecting the underworld, but for others, simply sounds of the world just outside your body. James definitely has the talent and ability to make this listening experience exceptionally beautiful. He also delivers this composition directly in the center of the field, allowing many different feelings to expand in any direction. Dense pastoral scenes of realities in some flux of experience. Never jagged or piercing, more vast and expansive like amber skies just before the color goes away or moonlit valleys where distance and definition blur into the night." - lostseasound blog.

"Wilt is the primary project of Illinois-based musician James Keeler. The moniker has been around for, amazingly enough, at least seventeen years, churning out a fair amount of releases in the meantime. Much of Wilt’s work has been issued via their own Institute for Organic Conversations imprint, but they have collaborated with many prestigious artists and labels beyond it, ranging from Prurient, Theologian, and En Nihil to Chondritic Sound, Bloodlust!, and (if you’ll allow me a brief moment of self-promotion) Turgid Animal.

Nocturnal Requiem was a strange beast to review. The first four or five times I attempted to listen to it, rigorously on headphones, I was in deplorable conditions to say the least. Half asleep, drenched in sweat, and on the verge of passing out, the weird, bleak, eerie, and disquieting sounds of Wilt induced equally strange and vivid dreams of metallic wastelands and a sort of negative version of the barren mountains of my hometown. Maybe that would have made more sense with a Voïvod record, but it was very intense nonetheless.

When I finally managed to listen to the whole album consciously and in a decent setting, my impressions were confirmed: Nocturnal Requiem is a plunge in total decay, death, and quasi-melancholic occult soundscapes.

The now-classic pairing of seventies/eighties cinematic ambient synthesizers and murky, dirty noise works unusually well here. Much of the time when musicians try to do this, one of two elements tends to overwhelm the other, or the mix just ends up sounding like two records playing at the same time. Instead, in Wilt’s case, the synths sound distant, cold, and otherworldly, while the boiling, brooding, almost incessant noise filth is never invasive, holding up perfectly well as counterpoint or sound carpet. I imagine this is pretty close to what John Carpenter would be playing now if he got into early Mauthausen Orchestra thirty years ago.

The occasional metal junk bashing and classic, slow industrial loops enrich the array of sounds and blend in well with them. It perfectly conveys that bizarre impression of listening to some imaginary, massive rusty factories working and rotting in the distance that’s a staple of old-school industrial music.

I’d really have to recommend Nocturnal Requiem to synth, dark ambient, and noise fanatics alike. There are many details to discover with multiple listens, and the album doesn’t get old easily. Perhaps I’ve been listening to too much dungeon synth lately, so my judgment very well may be clouded by visions of rolling D20 dice and broken pencils, but I think that Nocturnal Requiem would make for excellent background music for a Call of Cthulhu roleplaying session." - Heathen Harvest

"Wilt is the project of Dan Hall and James Keeler, also members of Astronomy and Hedorah. This noise duo focuses on the dark ambient and drone side of the genre, and Nocturnal Requiem is six tracks of somnambulant tones that cater more towards the sinister side of drone and dark ambient.

The first track is “Wandering Echo,” and much like its title suggests, this is a very meandering track full of sustained drones and repeating patterns. However, those intersecting elements also create what I would consider a boiler room cacophony – there’s the clanging of pipes to add a percussive element to the ideas, and that keeps the listener intrigued.

That’s the key to good dark ambient, too – that the tracks ensure the listener gets caught up in the soundscape rather than tuning out of it because of its repetition. Wilt captures that on Nocturnal Requiem. “Even the Most Ancient Things Lie in the Weeds of Present Time” is relatively short, but its bass clicks and churns suck the listener into the frolicking patterns.

“Moon Diver,” the album’s middle track, adds a heavy maelstrom in the background as synth notes call out from the depths. However, this one tends to go on a bit too long – it has some alterations as it reaches the double-digit length, but for the most part it remains stagnant in its call-and-response drones, although it would be the perfect fit for a horror film’s stalking moments.

“Over Waters Hidden Below” brings it back, though, with a churning drone in the background and a subtle hiss in the foreground. Synth notes break in here and there to add emphasis to the sound as listeners get pulled into the tones. “The Autobiography of Dreams” brings it back to the clanging of “Wandering Echo” while adding a swirling windstorm and oscillating synth notes; this one’s my favorite of the six because of its execution and complexity.

“The Starless Vault of Heaven” ends Nocturnal Requiem on almost an upbeat note, with more ethereal synth tones and a house electronica beat. It’s an experiment, and quite different from the brooding offerings before, but Wilt captures the feeling of coming out of the dark into a celestial sea, and it’s a great way to conclude the album.

Nocturnal Requiem is my first Wilt experience, but based on the dark ambient material offered here, I would love to check out more. This duo is able to conjure up eerie tones, but the album shows their range with a couple of dynamic tracks that sees Wilt stepping out of its comfort zone." - Memory Wave Transmission Blog

"Arvo Zylo is an artist we've reviewed before, his work is challenging to say the least but is also something you'd be wise to investigate if you appreciate noise as a genre.

Arvo has recently set up a non-internet label called No Part Of It. A website exists, but he only takes money orders and mail communication. Wilfully obscure, this is a gateway back to the mid-90s when you'd have to scrabble through photocopied sheets of A4 with brief, absurd descriptions to track down something new, hoping you got something back within a few months. It was kind of romantic in a pre-Amazon and eBay world. I remember ordering CDs in this way, but nothing as unknown or abstract as this.

Wilt is one man, James P Keeler who has apparently been about on the scene for around 15 years. His sporadic release schedule over that time only serves to make this release more auspicious. Minimal, but with some terrifying sounds recorded, Nocturnal Requiem has a dark heart and reaches depths and tones that bubble constantly over the 58 minutes the release encapsulates.

This Wisconsin artist has produced a singular, focused vision that would play out well as a soundtrack to urban decay or a bleak documentary on a declining industry. The use of looping feedback punctuated with organic-sounding keys on Moon Diver however bring to mind Earth at their most desert-dwelling pastoral.

Elsewhere, sound is let out like air from pallid, dusty rooms and allowed to circulate, touching everything with a damp and cold atmosphere.

Take Over Waters Hidden Below for example, the distant field recordings sound violent and action-packed, whereas closer sounds like dripping water and electronic buzzing stand closer, creating an uncomfortable but textured listen of everyday sounds funnelled through the darkness.

Available on pro-CDR, it might be worth going to some effort to track this release down. It's full of invention, melancholy and a quiet, yearning despair, just great." - NineHertz Blog

Earthen Textures x Depression Ambient x Scarecrow Electronics

Wilt extol the invisible corners of a thirsty earth with an exaltation of decay and reclamation. Best described as Noise Ambient, Wilt is an aural quagmire of dusky vapors and ivy draped relics, grating erosions and the thorny shadows that rise and fall across dying landscapes. - Scott Candey {Crionic Mind}

Facebook