Disturbing to a large degree, Ars Vivende (The Art of Living) is an album with burning, hair-raising emotion delivered in no uncertain terms.

…”Ars vivende” is a record that stands in front of any “gentle” aesthetic with the impetus of anger, poverty, rage against the perpetual…Like a Jackson Pollock painting, only splashed with blood, sweat and maybe stomach acids.

…like 100 cars crashing into splinters all at once.

There are no rules and nobarriers here, it’s the wildest experimentation you’ll get and some of the most abstract and absurd avantgarde experimental music you’ll find around.

…more daring, more complex, more puzzling…all the more disturbingly brutal…Ars Vivende takes their art much further than before.

this music begs the enormous question: where does it go from here and onward in creative improvised music?

…this music begs the enormous question: where does it go from here and onward in creative improvised music?

The Abstractions see life through darkly clouded glasses. Their deviate perceptions polarize expectations and form sides of lovers and haters…

At times, the album is on an energy level of feral chaos, much like the grindcore experimental work of Brutal Truth, while other times its more droning vocal noise, soundscapish, or just frantic free jazz. In fact, the entire album is pretty much non-stop action, with little in the way of calm musicality.

Ominous rumblings from an alternate dimension. This is music for those inhabiting the outer realms of reality. If you think you’re normal, be afraid. Be very afraid.

While the album is angry and at times anguished, it doesn’t become destructive or unmanageably assaultive, rather intense and demanding. And it is worth the effort of listening as a stimulating and engaging work.

…there is no denying the group’s skill in musically setting the disparate elements of their message.