Shelter Ov Shadows - The Serpent and the Circle of Perpetual Choirs
Something really dark and mysterious has evoked in the cold landscapes of Canada Gatineau, Québec. Since 2017 this project has been churning out 6 cassettes so far, and this one which I am going to review (with the very esoteric themed title) is the debut for this isolated project. This is one of the many acts by J. Browne who also was reviewed last year on Kalteldur with his project Widersinnen. Whereas Widersinnen moved into more winter-synth aesthetics, this project leans more into esoteric drones and ritualistic ambience.
We are dealing with a single-sided cassette containing only one track that goes by the same name as the release itself, 29 minutes and 26 seconds long in total.
Something subterranean, high to the ceilings and with deep, cold and mysterious tunnels (which might lead to places only read about in Jules Verne´s Journey to the Center of the Earth). That exact feeling engulfs the listener the very first second you have pressed the play button. And by the looks of it, you are probably not going to escape these vast caverns. It is not all devoid of life, hints of melodic synth work hide behind raw ambient drone-textures, which gives the listener (maybe) an idea of locating crumpling ruins within these subterranean spaces.
Excellent deep and heavy multilayered nonhuman-like voice drones are also present, which gives the overall recording a "nice" and "firm" bass-foundation. Everything on this recording sounds like a stream of pure and raw ambience streaming from an empty void, a void with no end that is!
A fantastic dark-ambient treat for everyone who is into primitive and raw soundtrack moods. Not polished with too much fluffiness, it just feels like a heavy carpet wearing you down to the very ground. You are bound to succumb to it, so you might as well just give in. Highly recommended for anyone who needs a slice of Canadian isolation! Out on cassette on french black-metal and ambient label Wulfrune Worxxx.
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