Schloss Tegal - Psychometry
For most ears who are curious in the world of dark-ambient, Schloss Tegal would be one of the prime movers in the genre. Some even claim that they were the first real dark-ambient act. The band has existed since 1989 and has had a string of various releases on various labels up until 2006. And now, 15 years later a new album called Psychometry has been born. So far it has been released on 1 CD-digipack, 2xLP edition, 2xLP+CD+8" etc (check the details on Discogs link below!). It´s a heavy treat and a heavy cult-item so sure.
For those who don't know, Schloss Tegal is a name for a psychiatric hospital (near Berlin) that treated soldiers with art and music therapy. And Psychometry is basically the psychic ability to extract information from a certain physical object simply by touching it. The cover-artwork + booklet that follows the release is a thing of lovely murky beautifulness. A cover-artwork which gives hints back to the early days of spiritism and meets up a kind of...esoteric cosmic horror. 11 tracks, about 55 minutes in total darkness.
First track Psychopompus hits it home already in the first 5 seconds. The sound is just right, not too smooth and not too rough either. Very heavy and very murky, but strangely pleasant and hypnotic-stimulating at the same time. Kind of, death industrial for dark ambient fans... in other words, it´s dark-ambient... just a wee bit darker (if you ask me). Monotonic underwater waves of heavy-sound and subtle ambient-drones... very nice!.
Second track Incorporeal Being moves further into cosmic strangeness. A huge mass of wind swirl and drowns the listener into oblivion, in a heartbeat, I was sure that it sounded like someone breathing (just slowed down with tons of powerful reverb). Eerie and dreamy recordings of something going on in the background... what it is I do not know.
Third track The Invalid Earth has that dark-ambient mood meet up with a kind of... old-school industrial feel. Reminds me of one of those Throbbing Gristle intros to some of their live recordings, depressing but evocative mood setter. A ritualistic thump later on with a scary radio-recording and a... ghost-like whale singing as well. I like it!
At the Fourth track Krononaut (Time Zero), it actually gets sort of scary in the classic paranormal sort of sense. A very desperate (but hard to hear) telephone voice is talking, a sort of... recording of dead people talking (forever) and being recorded on some high-tech radio equipment. Fluid like ritual ambiance in the background in the company of a cold mechanized machine sound, the kind of sound which u would expect from the strange machines which the Migo created in Lovecraft´s Whisperer in the Darkness. Still being unpleasant in the pleasant sort of sense.
Fifth track Black Vessel has a more of a harsh cold electronics sound. Ruined post-war territory. Think Dagma Mor and Grey Wolves in ambient-soundtrack moods. Again, interesting stuff going on the mix. Lots of cool layers here, and lots of recorded details.
Yup, And I will not reveal anything more from here since there is so much for you to discover. And yes! We have such sights to show you! It´s a great and horrific dark-ambient treat for those who think that dark-ambient has turned... into a shallow and hollow over-produced thing. This one is unpolished, harsh, unforgiving and just being true to the bone (Yup... truly it´s dark ambient here). Give it a spin (or 10 times for that matter!).
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