Arash Akbari - Vanishing Point

It is rare we fall over a release from Tehran, Iran. It is also rare that we fall over an atmospheric ambient masterpiece from Tehran, Iran. But as it is the case, this is the first time for me hearing ambient from Iran. And what a thrill it is. This is the second release from the artist, and it has been released on Flaming Pines. A once Australian based but now London based label has been focused on experimental ambient since 2011. Releasing on pro-CDrs and LPs as well. 

Part moody ambient and atmospheric drone, mysterious and slightly slow melancholic synth-based melodies lighten it up. Already at the beginning, the opening track Vanishing Point will make you breathless. Soothing, relaxing but still... slightly dark and mesmerizing. Could work beautifully as the upcoming background theme for Bladerunner, it really is that deep and emotive. The next track, s short angelic track (also piano-based) gives the listener a perfect introduction to the ominous piece called Through the Endless Glade. Again it feels like being drowned in deep and beautiful drone´ish synth melodies at the bottom of a well. It then moves onto the three-part Constant Blackness tracks; A veil of sadness, string-like drones, raw electronic glitch, whispering voices rumbles in a deep underground cave. The album continues in this mysterious path, feels like it literary stops time! Another beautiful (and more accurate) description of this album, can be read from one of the admires on the Bandcamp site. For fans of Rapoon, Robert Rich, Nocturnal Emissions and Boards of Canada.  

I think I might be listening to this album some more, afterward would be to track down his debut!. Reader, enjoy this album!

Bandcamp:

https://flamingpines.bandcamp.com/album/vanishing-point

Official site:

http://www.arashakbari.com

Kalteldur radio playlist #2

Another short update to wake up slumbering ambient minds and lazy dungeon dwellers. A quick tour and flashback to machine-like dance-music of the 80s!... Felt like I needed some cold and repetitive machine retro grooves, so here it goes! ... From minimal-wave to industrial to electronic post-punk to electronic body music. 

ENJOY!

https://www.mixcloud.com/per-najbjerg-poulsen/dance-club-machine-bodies/

  

Veni om - Faith in the Light of Now

There´s a new act with a new tape in town, this time from the Netherlands. We´re a talking about an independent/non-label debut cassette and digital release via Bandcamp. The first way for me to describe this is to quote the description from the site itself: ´Veni Om´s meditative songs, while stripped to essentials, contain a peaceful and transcendental power eliciting a pure joyous, contemplative experience´. And his right, it does work in that way. But don´t shy away, it´s not easy healing new-age muzak. I will describe it as; drone-ambient soundtrack music with a minor ethnic influence. Sort of took me back to Morthound´s Spindrift from 1992, this one is just way more in the hypnotic drone section. There are also parts which take you back to the early ambient days with Brian Eno or Kraftwerk, Ambient 1 Music for Airports with Eno and Radioactivity with Kraftwerk to mention them.

And talking about various cool instruments being used; Organ, saxophone, percussion and finally programming. I wonder if this guy ends up in Legendary Pink Dots (also lives in Netherlands), he would fit into that slot quite nicely.   

And to round it all up, CHECK OUT the cool looking cassette. I think it´s a pure beauty, and re-presents the music in a perfect way. Worth anyone's time!

Bandcamp:

https://veni-om.bandcamp.com/album/faith-in-the-light-of-now

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/veniomdevotional/

Secluded Alchemist - Arcane Sanctuary

The second release from this Louisville, Kentucky based Dungeon Synth act. An act which attempts to mix dark ambient and drone into the alchemist's cauldron (so to say). It´s very well made, the sound is really good (but still primitive) and the mood is just right. 

It´s a very moody synth-based soundtrack album, tons of esoteric hints hidden behind ancient brick walls. At times it feels like being trapped underground in an archaic temple, which time itself have forgotten all about. Maybee even searching for the lost remains of the original Key of Solomon, in some dank and moist catacomb hidden away from curious eyes. Or taking part of a masonry initiation ritual, in some great room inside one of the great pyramids of Egypt. It´s all very deep, escapist and very satisfying to listen to. 

Not really dungeon synth, but a kind of ambient-based mood music for the fans of dungeon synth. Fans of Herbst9, Inside, Lustmord would love it. Some of it even gives me that "How To Destroy Angels" with Coil feel. Maybee a new genre has been born here?... Ambient for catacombs? Lovecraftian synth?. 

If you are that dungeon synth fan who just need a kind of easy introduction into the netherworlds of dark ambient (Through dungeon synth of course), then this is a perfect place to start!

Bandcamp:

https://secludedalchemist.bandcamp.com/album/arcane-sanctuary

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/secludedalchemist/

  

Cosmic Indifference - Brylnnftttfyt

Our favorite New-Zealand noise resident Jacob Levesque is at it again. Now with his project called Cosmic Indifference, which also can be found on his label The Dark Thursday. This project works within continuously ambient wall drones, without the harsh noise element. 

With this only-digital and free downloadable release, we´re dealing with a 1 track 16:20 minutes. How to describe the sound, it is very soothing and relaxing. Putting a seashell to your ear, with the sound of wind and waves in the background. The only difference is that the waves on the beach keep on roaring without hitting the sandy ground. Endless waves, and gentle wind tapping into your ear. After a stressful day, it works good as a mind eraser and keeps you focused! There´s also a sort of mystery behind the pleasantness, listen closely and you might even hear EVP recordings (I´m sure of it!).EVP recordings, being radio recordings containing the voices of deceased people. 

A worthy time out of a release for isolationistic souls.

Bandcamp:

https://thedarkthursday.bandcamp.com/album/brylnnftttfyt

Label:

https://www.facebook.com/thedarkthursday/

Kalteldur radio playlist #1

This is going to be a short update, an update to show what kind of feel or taste that Kalteldur is all about. And what better way to do that by doing a proper playlist on Mixcloud!

There you have it! Something I wanted to do for some time, so here it is. All mystical, all post-throbbing gristle occult driven industrial/ex-industrial esoterics with short/bald hair. Summoning demons, angels, dead gods, deceased, spirits, totem animals. And getting ideas from Crowley, Evola, Sparre, Manson etc etc etc. Perfect for just getting into that strange mood that you all need!

ENJOY! 

https://www.mixcloud.com/per-najbjerg-poulsen/esoteric-post-industrialism/

While Angels Watch - Interregnum

A band which has been in existence since 1986, started in the post-punk realm (with a sound not that far away from the Joy Division/New-Order-sound). Started by Michael D. Victor. This was then fused with the dark and upcomin' proto neo-folk sound, already kick-started by the likes of Death In June and Current 93. 3 self-released albums on cassette were released in the period of 1986 to 1991. 11 years went, and a new album was released in 2002. Another compilation in 2011, which contained material from the 3 early cassette releases (see video)

Now, a new album was released back in late 2016 called Interregnum. Following a sound which does a good fusion between moody post punk and brooding English traditional neofolk. Fans of Sol Invictus, Fire+Ice, David E. Williams and Blood Axis should take notice, we may be talking about one of the best neofolk releases in recent times!. Released on a rather new neofolk label (since 2015) called Folkworld, which also have released the likes of Et Nihil and Non Audient.

The albums start off with Voices, a good start I might add. Try to imagine a slow and doomy folk version of New Order´s Blue Monday, well there you have it!. With additional psychedelic sounding guitars, lovely synth-work and rich sounding folk-guitars. And strange samples and voices talking... and talking to oblivion. Lovely sense of paranoia and doom here already. Next track Loki Rides takes you back to real traditional apocalyptic English Neo-folk, the sound quality is awesome and highly atmospheric. Beautiful guitars again, Victor´s fore-brooding and deep voice, shimmering bells, martial drummings (real ones of course) and breathtaking encores sweep your mind away. 

This recipe follows all the up to the track Locust Moon. A more ambient and atmospheric direction from now on. Sorrow filled, beautiful, evocative and slightly ritualistic. A relaxing and soothing direction from the more dramatic and apocalyptic post-punk/folk start. Symbols in the Snow and Winter are among my favorite tracks on the album, perfect for the upcoming autumn. I can also reveal that our dear Patrick Leagas (ex-first Death In June percussionist/Sixth Comn) is featured on the Winter track. Kinda makes me think of Sixth Comn´s Winter Sadness, in a good but still original way.  

All the relaxation stops here, colliding into the warlike anthem of Sound of War. Featuring Christoph D from Golgotha, and using lyrics originally done by Gitane Demone (Christian Death). A kind of the-calm-before-the-storm sort of a track reminds me of Controlled Bleeding for some reason. Imagining two armies facing each other on the battlefield here. The bitterness and epicness of Europa Aeterne follow up after the war, a real good track featuring Hott Howden on violin. 

When you reach the end of the album, you reach the track called List 99. Takes you back again with Victor´s love for Joy Division/New-Order. Is it the love for Atmosphere, or is it Ceremony I am hearing? A very quiet acoustic track, which stops in its tracks to head crash into psychedelic industrial-space rock/post-punk. A mad way of ending this album, but it works!. Hear the album from start to finish, and you´ll know what I mean. 

So in conclusion, a very GOOD neo-folk album which mixes different aspects of ambient and post-punk aesthetics into the mix. It also makes you curious, as to how the band sounded back in the 80s. If this album works as being some kind of a comeback album, it works as being that. I am hungry for more now, so then I just gonna have to wait on that. 

Bandcamp:

https://whileangelswatch.bandcamp.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/While-Angels-Watch/235666373014?

ref=hl

Label:

http:s//www. folkworld-online.de

Guardian Sorrow - A Castle Under a Curse

A 15-minute tape is sometimes all it takes. Why stretch it all away on a shiny Compact Disc? (with another shiny (and glossy) computerized booklet off course). 15 minutes of pure dungeon synth, the kind of scary and cursed ancient-castle sort of. The Castle of Vlad Tepes, Moosham castle, Chateau De Brissac, Castle of Bardi or our own Danish castle Dragsholm Castle. All of them, sort of cursed and haunted more or less. 

I can say the same thing about this debut EP release by Spanish Guardian Sorrow. Also released (by Guadian Sorrow)is another cassette (The Ruins of an Empire Forged by Love) which follows in a more black-metal orientated style. These 2 cassettes have then also been compiled onto a CD called The Land of Ancient Ruins. Which you off course can check up on his official Bandcamp site.

As I have said earlier, this is the kind of gothic-horror sort of Dungeon Synth. If you´ve seen Herzog´s version of Nosferatu with Klaus Kinski, then you probably know what kind of horror I am referring to. Eerie, haunting, deep and foreboding material. And it is good, it really is. And I must confess (Although I said earlier that 15 minutes is enough!), that a LONG tape with this act could well end up on my wish list!. Think EARLY Raison d´être at its darkest moments, or just old-school dungeon synth with a nod to gothic horror. Another cult jewel in the dungeon synth realm!

Bandcamp:

https://guardiansorrow.bandcamp.com/ 

Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/5859872-GuardianSorrow