OSCILLATIONS: I HAVE A SPECIAL PLAN FOR THIS WORLD by Current 93

In a world filled with mundane "communication" (Twitter, anyone?)  and sudden hyperpole ("awesome"), here is a quiet bit of electronica and spoken word that does its job and exits gracefully leaving an indelible impression.

                              When everyone you have ever loved is finally gone
                              When everything you have ever wanted is finally done with
                              When all of your nightmares are for a time obscured
                               as by a shining brainless beacon
                               or a blinding eclipse of the many terrible shapes of this world
                               when you are calm and joyful
                               and finally entirely alone
                               then in a great new darkness
                               you will finally execute your special plan

And so begins the ride into a secret and terrible beauty,  courtesy writer Thomas Ligotti and musician David Tibet,  who supplies voice,  found sound,  atmospheric electronics  and vocal processing aplenty.  The suffocating cloud that surrounds this piece offers a personal apocalypse glimpsed through the strangulation of phrases and the clipping of vocal sounds.  Thomas Ligotti provides the chillingly nihilistic and philosophically elliptical (thematic loops to some extent) confessions here,  without ever spilling over  into mere sensationalism.  This nightmare seems all the more real for its calm delivery and pacing.  While a similar sinister quality may be found in earlier Current 93 works like NATURE UNVEILED and DOGS BLOOD RISING,  this release greatly benefits from Ligotti's text,  the unflustered development of the voices,  and an almost obsessive use of repetition.  In many ways the minimalism heard here makes this a distant cousin to Steve Reich's COME OUT (1966)  and David Tudor's I AM SITTING IN A ROOM (1969),  but without their concern for aural texture and process.  I HAVE A SPECIAL PLAN FOR THIS WORLD (2000),  while not as artistically prescient as those works,  does do something that great art often does so cunningly.  It provides possibilities without any comforting disclosure at all.