ALBUM REVIEW: A Deep Voiceless Wilderness / Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems – Steve Von Till

There are some artists that fans will follow as they stray into new territory, no matter how far this takes them away from their ‘core’ work. If a musician has trodden the path for many years, has ‘put in the work’ touring and creating music that people love, those fans are willing to indulge side projects, solo projects, and every experimental impulse – following along the way.

For Steve Von Till, vocalist and guitarist of defining post metal titans NEUROSIS, straying from the ‘main’ track and into the wilds around it is nothing new. Having spent over two decades releasing folk-flecked solo work under his own name, expansive musical landscapes under the HARVESTMAN moniker, and the double-life of TRIBES OF NEUROT producing companion and supplemental records to NEUROSIS‘ main output, Von Till is no stranger forging his own path.

His most recent offerings will come as no surprise to those most familiar with his work and his words. Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems is his first collection of poetry and lyrics, now presented read aloud by Von Till and set amongst a shifting aural landscape.

A Deep Voiceless Wilderness is a sweeping, cinematic reimagining of 2020’s No Wilderness Deep Enough, his first solo effort not to feature guitar. Voiceless by name and nature, it is an instrumental wandering through varied instrumentation that not only shares with its ‘twin’ album, but also with the audio version of the Harvestman poetry collection – the latter borrowing sounds from the former, or using those that did not make it onto A Deep Voiceless Wilderness.

Those familiar with the lyrics of NEUROSIS will find similar themes throughout Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems – nature, the elements, the self, intangibility, blood, strife, life and death, and the beauty of all these things. Von Till’s smoky, oft rumbling voice and earnest delivery are infinitely listenable, laid bare against reverb that highlights negative space, or set against itself in looping and decaying echoes that create an unsettling call and response. The audio manipulation serves a joint purpose – keeping the flow of spoken word dynamic, and highlighting words and passages, driving meaning home.

Passages XIII – XVIII are framed by ethereal noisescapes, similar to that conjured by NEUROSIS or TRIBES OF NEUROT on their more esoteric tracks, but here implemented more softly, for the sake of ease rather than unease. Passages XIX – XXIII are the most compelling; a backdrop of melancholic, rising and falling strings, tolling keys and synth tones creating a score-like undertone to Von Till’s breathy, frank delivery.

Von Till’s flair for creating cinematic scope and feel is taken even further on A Deep Voiceless Wilderness. Where the poetry collection is focused on the weight of voice and words, A Deep Voiceless Wilderness communicates in a different tongue altogether. Called From the Wind rises and falls in peaks and lush lowlands of bright yet brittle strings and blaring horn-tones, before slowly blooming into considered keys and deep, flickering echoes.

We’ll Always Have the Sea drones with 80’s sci-fi synths, suggesting a sweeping expanse of swelling waves, tones shimmering as light on water. The Emptiness Swallows Us All takes a turn towards darker shores; pulsing synths adding threat as sound dances at the peripheries. A balm of wondrous keys and strings soothe, hope born from anxiety. Shelter In Surrender mimics natural noises through synth means; the rush of wind through trees and chittering of birds slowly evolving into unhurried chords.

Nightshade High Country begins with soft, slow chords given room to exhale, surrounded by deeply soothing synth droning. Closer The Spiraling Away is proud, assertive strings, FX drenched piano notes that fall like drops of rain, building layer by orchestral layer into definite strings, and throbbing, grinding synth.

Compared to NEUROSIS’ typical sonic gauntlet that brings joy through leaden riff based catharsis, this is Steve Von Till unrestrained and able to follow wend and weave of emotional air currents, soaring high throughout. Both releases are a testament to his artistry and diversity, his ability to deliver and engender emotion with words and with wordlessness. While not every fan of Von Till’s work, as a solo artist or collaboratively, will find what they are looking for with A Deep Voiceless Wilderness or the Harvestman collection (by their nature, fringe poetry and instrumental music are not mass appeal), fans of the man behind it all will find richness untold and wilderness untamed.

Rating: 8/10

Harvestman: 23 Untitled Poems and A Deep Voiceless Wilderness are out now via Neurot Recordings.

Like STEVE VON TILL on Facebook.