Bauke van der Wal has been recording as the [law-rah] collective for over two decades, and has produced albums on a variety of labels, including Ant-Zen, Spectre, and ta'lem. This time, van der Wal is joined in the effort by Martijn Pieck to document two live performances.

Disc 1 is “Den Haag, September 28th” and features pulsing drones that continually shift and evolve. Faint sampled voices act more at atmosphere than vocals. Intricate synth work. All of these things are stitched together the create an atmosphere that you sort of fall into. This is the kind of music that encourages you to let your mind wander. Nicely done.

Disc 2 is “Den Bosch, September 15th.” This is a lot more industrial in feel, while still keeping the cinematic feel that I like about this project. Heavily distorted voices mix with grinding drones and bits of static. This is noisy, but not really noise, and there is an unsettling feel to it that does a good job of building tension throughout the piece. Overall, this is an interesting soundscape that gives the feeling of floating in a derelict space lab right before orbital decay drags it into the atmosphere.

I enjoy live releases because they are often more raw and improvisational, but sometimes they just end up being warmed over versions of the same old thing. Thankfully the latter is not the case here. This set demonstrates just how carefully the collective puts together their work. Well worth checking out.