Unheard modular synth transmissions from Suzanne Ciani finally see an official release, thanks to Finders Keepers! Originally conceived in 1969 by Ciani on her distinctive Buchla system, Flowers Of Evil is a sonic adaptation of Charles Baudelaire's controversial 1857 poem of the same name (Les Fleurs Du Mal). Baudelaire's prose on modernité is known to be of critical significance to modernist/futurist movements, so it's hardly a surprise that Ciani would take it as a point of inspiration (as did many other pioneering musicians across the ages including Karlheinz Stockhausen, Serge Gainsbourg, and Marc Almond of Soft Cell to name a few). Ciani's take remains one of her earliest, and most challenging, experiments in sound - a strange and haunting work that exemplifies the "fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis" Baudelaire describes in his poetry. The complete 14+ minute piece is presented here for the first time, along with another lost track from the Ciani vaults, "Glass Houses," as well as the soundtrack to a short art film entitled "Token Spokes," one of the pioneering synthesist's darkest works. Recommended.

• music label: Finders Keepers Records 2019

reviewed by Wave Jumper 07/2018