ZeroNull - Red Mars

Marbre Negre is mostly known for being a noisy label, dealing in lots of noisy harsh-noise and power electronics releases. But once (in a while) they also deal in QUITE spacy material. Acts like Gargara, B°tong, and Clavius (Just to name a few!). ZeroNull is another one of those highly mysterious deep-space ambient acts, and they/he/she has just released a new album delving into the mysterious nature surrounding the red planet of Mars. After some research, I did find out that this release is the first of a trilogy based on Kim Stanley Robinson´s books about Mars. So I guess we will expect two more releases after this one. I'm curious of course, about who this Kim Stanley Robinson is... I read a lot if you ask me! Anyways, a double-sided cassette with two tracks on each side 35 minutes in total here.

The first track is called Katabatic Winds Over Olympus Mons. A nifty and highly esoteric-sounding intro to the track. Sounds of stretched metallic strings, evocative synth-work, manipulated sampled sounds, and with a majestic atmosphere from some other dimension. Think Dune, Vidna Obmana, and Maeror Tri... that kind of stuff. Love this deep shit!

The second track Thermokast Evolution Of Valles Marineris has more ritualistic-tribalistic moods going on. Deep machine drones, a looped and thumping crashing sound, evocative reversed (and reverbed) sounds with an interesting and ice-cold scraping sound on top of it. Dream-like strings on a synth are added later on. This stuff is great, takes my breath away here!

We flip the cassette and continue on the B-side. And the third track here is called Phobos Tidal Decelartion. Phobos?... Weren´t we on Photos when we played Doom on our stationary PC?!. Anyways! A deep and endless chasm of ambient sound opens the track. You get the sensation of endless desert dunes on a cold night, with an utterly alien sky above. Beautiful drone sounds, evocative synth work, and ritualistic undercurrents give any thirsty ear an aural orgasm.

We continue with the fourth and last track Terraforming Red Mars. Not as murky as the former tracks, but more of an optimistic piece. Still maintaining that enigmatic synth-driven ambient sound from the great cosmos. The big question is, would it be a good idea to terraform Mars? Let us hope so!

What a fantastic journey of sound with Zeronull. A thorough and well-thought/constructed ambient soundtrack to Mars. All the thoughts and ideas the listener would have about Mars, and how these thoughts and ideas would sound if they were turned into pure sound. Red Mars by Zeronull gives you all the answers and more to it. What a fantastic album that I would recommend to any fans of ambient music! Cannot wait for the other two releases in the trilogy!

Bandcamp (label):
https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/red-mars