Grodock - Gesammelte Hintergründe
The first album/release we are going to review in the year 2026. It's called Gesammelte Hintergründe (Collected Backgrounds). It is a compilation that gathers various recordings made between 2013 and 2023. Released on cassette (via Frenetic Magic Sounds) and on CD (via Krater Recordings). The CD comes in a beautiful digipack, with a textured feel. Painting showing various fruits in different stages of decomposition. The album contains 13 tracks, about 50 minutes in total.
The first track is called Goldene Garben (Intro). You don't really know what´s going on after you have pressed the play button. Ancient technology hums and creeks in a haunted factory, spirits float in and out of the rusty machines. A high-pitched tone, ghostly drones, gentle thumping in the distance... maybe the sound of someone drilling for oil out in the desert? Lovely mysterious intro indeed.
The second track, Hab Acht (Be Careful), gets further into mysterious soundscapes. Listening to heavenly organ church-ambiance through a steel pipe. A deep tone, and the sound of cockroaches and someone... saying in German ´Hilf Mir´ (Help Me)... intense, heavenly, and surreal material here. Satisfying in a adventorous way.
The third track, Das Halbe Abwesen (The Half Abscece), has more of an esoteric mood to it. Does remind me a bit of Maeror Tri (one of my favorite acts), ambient with a experamental, cinematic, and sort of post-rock edge to it. Melancholic stuff, very spiritual aswell. Hypnotic, melancholic, dreamy.
The fourth track Abfertigung (Clearance). Gentle, harsh, dreamy drones, with the sound of rubber shoes in a gymnastics hall (I think). The drones can be described as if something is grinding itself on a huge church bell. Or is it the machine room connected with the gymnastics hall?
The fifth track, Blicklos (Sightless). Kind of a black experience, imagine how sound can feel like when you're blind... or how sounds can change the way u think. Very subtle and very bass-heavy ambient minimalism at work here. And yeah, there are intriguing sounds behind that thick wall of bass!
We jump a bit further to the seventh track called Farbe: Blau. One of my favorite tracks on the album. Feeling strangely nostalgic here (for some reason), temple sort of ritual music is going on. Sound of fingers on glass and crystal-clear steel bars. Like being inside a huge crystal cave. Strangely pleasant, incredibly soothing.
There are 8 more tracks to further explore on this marvelous album. It´s ambient music for ambient freaks who need something new and interesting. And yes, it does sound new, and it does sound VERY interesting. I find it incredibly inspiring and intriguing. There are a lot of sound-wise themes that are getting thoroughly explored here; every track works as a unique piece on the album. Very hard to describe it with words, since it´s very spiritual and surreal. I can only say that it´s incredibly good, and that is all u need to know!
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