Plucked from the apparently boundless archives of esoterica, Quantum is an unreleased “journey through sound in two parts” recorded in the early ’70s by soundtrack composer and avant-jazzbo Kirchin. While not quite the consciousness-reshaping phantasmagoria promised by the sleevenotes, it’s certainly absorbing?a soundspace where primitive industrialism, spliced-tape ambience, random babble, wandering improvisers like Evan Parker and field recordings of geese meet and merge. More curiously, it gets weirder with each listen, as the noises become fleetingly, if unreliably, recognisable: is that a dog duetting with the xylophone 15 minutes into “Part One”, or a malfunctioning toilet? Devious stuff indeed.
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