Lilith - Yuanmengzhonghua - Genuine to the Core (2016)

The combined efforts of producer Scott Gibbons and vocal contributor Rachel Wilson, Lilith is an experimental electronic/dark ambient group with feet planted with equal force in industrial and "power electronics." Unlike artists normally associated with the latter two genres, however, Lilith's music is conceived from the standpoint of simplicity and resourcefulness, with Gibbons' artful approach to the musical potential of mundane objects and only very minimal production trickery substituted for industrial/noise music's curt, often messy impudence. A graduate of the University of Chicago Master's program in the Philosophy of Religion, Gibbons' undergraduate and graduate careers were split between books and unhindered improvisational outings, first with the Chicago ensemble New Elementals, then solo as Nipple Runs and Laughingwind. The Elementals were as renowned for their live performances (which often included elaborate costumes, theater, and pyrotechnics), and Gibbons has retained his taste for extreme performance both as a solo artist and with Lilith. Gibbons released several self-produced tapes -- both with the Elementals, as well as under his solo guises -- before forming Lilith in 1991 with vocalist Rachel Wilson, with whom he'd worked sporadically in the past. Like earlier material, Gibbons' Lilith tapes were dominated by an unsettling mixture of sparse, treated instruments and percussion, but with increasing truck given to a heavily conceptual approach to found sound and everyday objects (rocks on Stone, voice and breath on Redwing). Unlike many sound hackers, however, Gibbons prefers real-time manipulation, with single-track studio improvisations limiting generational sound experiments to arrangement and composition (although he does use computers, primarily for real-time processing). Gibbons' Lilith material finally began finding a larger audience in 1992, with his first official release, Stone, issued by the Belgian experimental label Sub Rosa, and he's since been featured on compilation releases side by side with such artists as Locust and David Toop. Gibbons' ongoing interest in the extremes of spirituality and sexuality also continue to inform his music, with themes deriving from Theosophy, Crowleyan numerology, and sexual deviance cropping up both in song-titles and conceptual motifs. 1999's isolationist symphony Field Notes marked his first release for World Domination, a teaming that would only provide one album under the Lilith moniker. After working on several other projects, Gibbons turned back to his pet project and released Imagined Compositions for Water on Les Disques Hushush. ~ Sean Cooper.