L'Egarement d'Esprit - Written in Stone
A new customer in the realm of Kalteldur. The label called Steinklang has dared to send us stuff to review. Steinklang is an old European label, with both feet firmly planted into the realm of noisy martial industrial and heathen neo-folk. I was into Steinklang some years ago, and I was surprised to hear that the label was still around. Sort of like... the Austrian´s answer to Tesco if you please.
But nonetheless... they have released a new album/compilation with an act called L´egarement D´Esprit, and the album is called Written In Stone. Here is some basic info about the album from the act itself:
Written in Stone" is a compilation of two digital demos, online compilations' tracks, and previously unreleased material. Part of this album is a collection of oneiric impressions of a warm summer evening when an unknown young man is looking for comfort in lousy cafés and obscure brothels on the eve of his enlistment. The other part is a silent scream of the same young man terrified, hungry, covered in trench mud, longing for home and warmth of woman's body.
Yes, it all sounds like something out of Ernst Junger´s famous first world war book In Stahlgewittern (recommended reading). We´re dealing with a physical digipack release with 14 tracks, 55 minutes in total.
The first track with no name (Untitled) instantly reminds you of such classic ritualistic acts as Archon Satani or Inanna. Ceremoniously, looped, and distorted samples going on with a ritualistic mood on top of it. Love the piano parts in there, which gives the ambient piece a nice edge to the harsher elements within the track.
The second track Cafe Parisien starts with a church organ, setting the mood. Eerie sounds from a past creep in, the sound of dust on a record player in there as well. Slowed down human voices talking, with epic drones giving the track some extra room and space.
The third track Laudanum Euphoria has that classic kind of CMI sort of beginning. Heavy machine-like drones, ritualistic chantings with repetitive rhythmic sounds.
The fourth track La Force De Lámour gets into something else. A lighter dark-ambient piece, with something going on in the background with a synth. I feel that this track almost has a story to tell, it evolves into something else from the beginning and to the end.
The fifth track (Bloody long French title) almost sounds like a romantic one. Beautiful organ synth stuff going on in here. Dungeon synth fans would dig it. Love the religious feeling to this, so far my favorite track on the album. The track should have been longer!.
The sixth track Vergib Mir, Camarade is a spacy industrial-martial piece with a movie sample that I don´t recognize. Touches of early Kraut-rock here and there.
I am gonna jump a bit to the tenth track called Amen. A very evocative drone piece here kids. Imagine the war between angels and devils in slow motion, or just the mood of a city turned to dust. I saw a video the other day of the Ukraine city of Mariupol, a drone showing the city. That sort of mood. From life to death in a few days. Mariupol kind of makes a track called Amen, sort of scary.
The eleventh track That Last Summer, doesn't sound like Blue Ouster Cult´s Summer of Love. But more like a track caught between the idea of hope in a hopeless situation and the idea of being comfortably numb in hell. It is a very easy-listening piece of evocative ambient music, but there is a touch of evil in there. Like something taken out of a Pasolini flick.
There is lots more stuff to be explored on this moody album. It works like a compilation and it sounds like a compilation, without being too messy in the aesthetic of sound. I did have one thought (idea) if the band could manage to create a conceptual album with 4 tracks on it. and each track would be around 10 minutes long. Whatever this band does, they could do it even better by making longer tracks. Good ideas require more time, and these guys have some good ideas. Will be looking forward to a full-length conceptual album in the near future!.
Bandcamp (label):
Bandcamp (label):