When Daniel Castrejón founded Umor Rex in 2006, the Mexico City-based label followed the digital-first approach of many net labels of the time and mostly served as a platform for producers and composers from Latin American countries. However, in the beginning of the 2010s Umor Rex started to diversify in many regards. Iranian composer and soundscapist Siavash Amini’s Till Human Voices Wakes Us was an early cassette release and is one of four albums that is being issued on vinyl for the first time to celebrate Umor Rex’s 20th anniversary.
Amini has made a new for himself internationally with releases on respected labels such as Lawrence English’s Room40, Hallow Ground, and American Dreams. The ten pieces on Till Human Voices Wake Us already showcase the theoretical underpinnings and aesthetic processes that made his later albums stand out. Amini’s music often emerges in relationship with other forms of art, from photography to literature. With field recordings, subtle melodies played on electric guitar and a lot of processing, Amini enters a dialogue with the writing of modernist writer T.S. Eliot.
The title quotes the final line of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, but leaves out the last words »and we drown.« The fatalism, or at least melancholy of this particular poem is nevertheless implied throughout this album. It is a dense yet minimalist work that merges an air of introspection with covert expressionistic gestures. An early highlight in the discography of both Amini and Umor Rex.
