The latest from ambient sound wizard Zach Frizzell, aka zakè, is the enigmatic and widescreen effort B⁴+3. Originally known as B⁴, a 2023 Zakè Drone Recordings release that was a musical companion to art prints created by Frizzell, zakè felt that he wasn’t yet finished with this record. In fact, in describing that feeling he stated there was “unfinished business” and that these songs were sort of left in a “purgatory state”.
His reworking of this project is B⁴+3, with the original tracks worked and molded into what they are now, as well as 3 new tracks that expand this release. These 7 songs bloom before you like sonic flowers, expanding their petals and reaching for the sunlight. They do as all zakè work does, it envelopes you and brings you closer to an understanding of the universe through the hum and hush of inspiration.
B⁴+3 sits as one of zakè’s most expansive works yet. 7 long form works of cascading sound and heady intentions. If you are already familiar with Zach Frizzell’s work, then this record will be like stepping into a warm and inviting world. A place familiar to you in dreams; hazy memories swirl around you, and these sound pieces paint beautiful abstractions and alternate worlds where exhilaration and fear are one in the same.
The album is bookended with opener “Bracken” and closer “Barren”. Both tracks nearly 12 minutes in length, they bring us into this world and take us out. “Monochrome drone for the gray days we see more often than we wish” is how Frizzell describes the sound of this record, and these two monolithic tracks do conjure steely grey clouds hanging over the flat landscape of the Midwest. But like those Midwestern skies, there’s always the promise of crisp blues and ethereal light shining through that monochrome sheen. But even without those blues and light shining through a crack in the grey, there’s still a feeling of overwhelming bigness in that monochrome. A feeling that there’s so much we don’t know, and so much more to learn. An alien beauty.
As I sat listening to B⁴+3 I was imagining portals lined in ethereal light. Tunnels opening and traveling from one reality to the next. “Betrayal”, “Burnt”, and “Banded” windows from one plane to the next, revealing deeper chasms to dream-like worlds that reveal everything and nothing, much like dreams. Whether you remember that journey depends upon how deep a psychic wound it leaves on you.
There are ominous moments here as well. “Blight” opens like thunder roaring in the distance, and you find yourself waiting for that electrical crack in the air as booming low end rises from some deeper depths than we can imagine. “Bane” builds on swells of almost organ-like drones, bringing to mind some sci-fi score. It’s the sound of walking into some fantastical unknown.
B⁴+3 is 71 minutes of pure sonic significance. It’s a stunning reworking of an older work. A closing of the circle, so to speak. It’s also the feeling of walking hand in hand with the universe into the great unknown, with no fear or regret in sight.
B⁴+3 is out on 2/29 via Zakè Drone Recordings.
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