Nam-Khar / Vortex - The Sarajevo Spiral
The Sarajevo Spiral is an album by the projects Vortex and Nam-Khar. Both acts are veterans in occult-inspired dark ambient. Vortex started in 2007, and Nam-Khar started in 2009. This one is the second album they have done together; they did another one back in 2022 called Nag-Hammadi. This album is a release between two labels: Cyclic Law (now based in France) and Zazen Sounds (Based in Greece). The 300 copies of this limited physical album are sold out on Cyclic Law, but u can get your hands on it via Discogs (check link below). Anyways!
The beautiful slipcase digipack has a painted picture of a skull, and then offcourse our favorite shrink Sigmund Freud. The album has its conceptual focus on 2 things. One is Freud, and the other is about the assassination, which more or less kick-started the First World War. And we all know, without the first one, we wouldn't have the second one. Regarding the assassination, I'm talking about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, no! Not the danceable indie-rock band from Scotland! Franz was an archduke of Austria, assassinated in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb student. Reason? The nationalist student wanted to liberate the South Slavs of Austria rule and the creation of Yugoslavia.
And the thing about Freud, there is a written text inside the digipack, where Freud has done a text called Thoughts For The Times On War And Death (Written in 1915). The essay describes how mankind/society becomes vulnerable to the shock and the horror of war, mainly by refusing the reality of death and ignoring the aggressive, warlike instincts/side of the human race.
A historic moment, an important psychological essay, and two veterans of industrial dark-ambient... Sounds like a treat! We get 11 tracks, over 60 minutes in total.
The first track is an Intro. Evocative sound of a violin in the distance, or is it getting closer the further we get into the track? A slowly string/drone sound fades in and out, and a subtle, atmospheric touch of martial-industrial aesthetics enters the void.
The second track is called Para Bellum (Prepare For War). Lovely kind of drones/looped ambient pieces of violin-based classical music in the background, while spoken words (In German with Austrian accent) speak something about (I think) the concept of the album. I don´t understand a word of what he is saying, but it sounds pretty good (If you like German offcourse!). The whole thing has that European WW1 kind of vibe to it. The background stuff is very well made, if you don't understand what he is saying... then the background stuff will!
The third track, The Sarajevo Spiral (like the album title). Someone is making a ghostly moan, and strange, slow trumpets melt into the sound. A hard-hitting drum (of some kind) gives the listener a nice wake-up call. Painfully stretched out sound of violins, if violins could cut through flesh. Basically has that Cthulhu awakens from his slumber kind-of-feel. Not loud or hard or anything, just a slow and crawling kind of silent horror. The sound (and the way it has been made) is just absolutely spotless, top-notch stuff! Has that late CMI-sound, a touch of Raison d´ëtre, Desiderii Marginis, and Sophia sort of feel.
The fourth track, Mobilization. A beautifully done martial ambient soundtrack piece, giving the listener an epic sense of focus and a sense of well.. mobilization. Secretly building an army, without anyone knowing about it. The sound, and the melody tell all about it... without the words. The Battle of Helm's Deep (sort of). Test Dept fans will nod their heads in approval here.
The fifth track, Theories of Expansion. Layered, cold, and howling winds. And a deep bass-drone. Why am I thinking of Carpenter´s The Thing here?! Soothing evocative synths further build on that idea. Looped martial rhythms and strings come later on, really getting a specific kind of feel which is well attached to the title of the track itself. U know what I mean when you hear it!
The sixth track, Materia Prima (Formless material regarded as the original material of the universe). A series of distant and thundering explosions, minimalistic martial rhythms, barbaric trumpets (like the dudes who ride the Oliophants). There is also some interesting kind of background stuff happening aswell, chaotic layered ambient-stuff... horrific if you focus on it!
The seventh track is called, Trench Warfare. Same martial rhythms and... the kind of sound used in... well, dub-techno? Sounds weird, but it actually kind of works with this WW1-theme. Danish ethnic industrial act Haraam has also used that sound aswell. Think we´re dealing with the atmosphere of just... waiting for something to happen, while your feet are just rotting away in your cold and wet soldier boots. Sound of chains (later on) is there aswell.
And that is where I will stop! If I reveal the rest of the album, it would be a spoiler! The Sarajevo Spiral is a pretty good album with that later CMI kind of sound. Halfway through i enjoyed the album on a top-notch scale, but when I was done (halfway) through, my mind started telling me that I shouldn´t expect to be surprised. I absolutely loved the first 6 tracks, but after that, it kind of... it became harder to hold on. At that point, it sounded like a Cyclic Law album... Let me explain, I have a thing or two about the label Cyclic Law (reviewed their stuff back in the day), everything from that label...tastes like... well, chicken! Reason? Because most of the releases from Cyclic Law have been mastered by the very same guy (same high-quality sound and same high-quality treament. Cyclic Law wants that sort of CMI sound, just without the dangerous madness offcourse! I wonder how this album actually sounded before it was mastered by Cyclic Law? If you try to look away from that, then yeah... It´s a very solid album with a high-quality stamp attached to it.
Bandcamp (label):
Bandcamp (Vortex):
Discogs (Nam-Khar):
