Boreal Dawn - In The Icy Embrace 

Of The Winter Queen

One of my all-time favorite dungeon synth artists is at it again. J. Browne, the same guy who brought you Widersinnen and Shelter Ov Shadows. I like him, simply because that he is the sole owner of a certain sound and style which he himself has created. In other words, a lovely kind of personal uniqueness that differs from each release.. and still... you can identify his sound on the spot. The same thing I can say about other favorite dungeon-synth artists like Fåntratt and offcourse Talog. This release is one among the many side-projects of Canadian-bred J. Browne, released via his own label Realm of Sleep. All the physical releases have been sold out, so you have to manage with a digital copy!

First track Hypothermic Healing being a very icy piece with a lovely kind of warmth to it. Think Finland, naked people rolling in frosty snow and then straight into a warm sauna... that kind of feeling. The melancholic and hypnotizing synth tones feel completely like a cold blanket against warm skin, it chills you down without a doubt. I am inside a huge and epic cathedral of ice... is also in my mind here as well. Incredible beautiful first track/opening!  

The second track Life Lays Beneath A Blanket Of Snow has a certain kind of Berlin-school/kraut-rock meeting Steve Roach sound of feel. Early ambient music if you please. It still has that dungeon vibe over it, Tangerine Dream/Harmonia running in the background to a game of Dungeons and Dragons maybe?. Fans of another dungeon-synth act called Foglord would dig this track for sure!

The third track Her Kingdom, Her Will Be Done continues the adventure further into pure ambient minimalism. Almost on the planet of Dune here, completely devoid of life... but soo incredible calm, and beautiful. The sound of this track makes me think how sound is/travels through the very air when the snow has fallen, that kind of calmness... Time stops. Again, epic and beautiful without the drama fuss.     

We flip the cassette and continues on the B-side, where we will find the longest track on the album. It´s called In The Icy Embrace of the Winter Queen (Like the album). Although a long track, it is (so far) the quickest track to jump on a sort of melody. A beautiful, melancholic monotone beginning with additional synth work a bit later on. Lots of peaceful intensity is being built here, brick by brick!. Although the winter queen being quite icy, I wouldn´t mind being embraced by this. Again, breath-taking stuff here. Otherworldly loveliness. 

An incredible journey from the start and to the end. An essential classic in the modern age of ambient music if you ask me. Not only would it please dungeon synth fans, but also listeners to some of the pioneers of ambient music as well. Let us all hope that this one will be re-issued in one way or the other, it deserves more attention!. 

Bandcamp (label+band):

https://realmofsleeprecords.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-icy-embrace-of-the-winter-queen

Discogs (label):

https://www.discogs.com/label/1612579-Realm-Of-Sleep-Records

 Cyanosis - Stench

Yes I know, there is a type error. It´s offcourse Cyanosis, and not Cyanosys... Or is it? Not sure. Cyanosis/Cyanosys is a highly productive death-industrial/dark-ambient solo act from Costa Rica. The same guy behind another excellent experimental act called Eye Floater (see the former review!). This one (I think) is the debut with this act. Love the base-to-basics-collage industrial feel regarding the cover-artwork! A shiny and beautiful simple digipack with tons of darkness inside. A limited CD version from Cognitive Discordance Records, an album which is also included in the limited (and extremely rare) 4 CD boxset!  9 tracks, about 60 minutes in total. 

The first charming track is called Kill Your Enemy and starts the album with an unpleasant mixture of ethereal drones and death-industrial sound aesthetics. Interesting and recorded spoken-word samples going on in the background, adds nicely to the mysterious and frightening soundscape. Highly evocative, surreal, and distorted vocal parts as well!

The second track Prolonged Unconsciousness almost had a classic Raison D´être sound here, could it be the sampled chanting monk? Or could it be the feeling of being inside a HUGE cathedral, with the whispering sound coming from the lips of the spirits hiding within? It´s that feeling of atmosphere. Epic ambient with a gothic touch, nothing wrong with that... I fxxxxx love it!

The third track Tearful Abhorrence of Displeasure (bad-ass title right?) is a slow and sinking feeling. Dark ambient torture stretched out to the very maximum. Slow martial drumming, torturous sound of moans and screams. clinical atmosphere... I am thinking of Unit 731 here... Kind of scary here kids!.

The fourth track Throw Them In The Fire is a hypnotizing and looped piece. Offering mechanized and repetitive sounds and ritual music sound textures. Sounds like a very deep hole in the background, like some sort of an abyss. A relentless beast of sound torture!

The fifth track Don´t Say No, say yes to... high pitched crystal-drones in surreal hypersonic stereo-effect and the sound of someone screaming... while falling into an endless pit. Nothing wrong with that is there?!. At this point, the listener will experience psychedelic side-effects!. Somewhere along the line between Controlled Bleeding and Illusion of Safety so far. 

Where Pain Dwells is the sixth track, pain hides inside ambient pleasantness and those highly stretched-out ghostly whisperings. I really dig it when that cathedral-like feeling is there. More mesmerizing chanting here. Love this track to the bone people!.

 

The seventh track is called Defleshed, ouch!. Are we talking about Hellraiser, or maybe that torture method that the Vikings used?. High-pitched early power electronics sounds meet up with the sound of early CMI! This stuff makes sense, it really does. Lots of cool stereo effects going on, from one speaker and to the other. The organic and ritualistic soundscape at its best!. Maybee Clive Barker could use this for the next Hellraiser re-boot?...

Lost Fate being the eighth track on the album. A psychedelic Wunder Baum into some lost dream from Twin Peaks. A mind-bending piece with intense sound drones that can levitate anything! Feels like a trip to the dentist, while being high on that painkilling gas stuff that some dentists use!

The very last track on the album called Vestigial ends the album with hypnotizing martial drumming. Not that far away from some of the early recordings with Ordo Equilibrio or Megaptera. The sounds of ghosts being very warped and disturbing here! Interesting way of ending an album, with extra rhythms at the end?... Why Not?!. A lovely apocalyptic ending here!  

A 100% masterpiece from Costa Rica here kids. An essential and modern death-industrial album that you all should own. The sound quality is superb, with lots of edge and guts and new-thinking ideas! Costa-Rica... The future home base for dark-ambient/death-industrial? I hope so! Stretch is a black pearl of sheer beauty, I cannot put one bad finger on this!. 

Bandcamp (label):

https://cognitivediscordancerecords.bandcamp.com/album/stench

Facebook (label):

https://www.facebook.com/cognitivediscordancerecords

Bandcamp (band):

https://cyanosis.bandcamp.com/

 

 Bozo´s Night Out

Been too long since the last time I have reviewed one of those... strange computer games from the old times. Been messing around with my Commodore 64-mini, USB-drive and have offcourse added some extra games to the damn thing. 

One of the games which I didn't have as a kid was a game simply called Bozo´s Night Out. Surfing the various sites for old computer games, I stumbled upon it. The title alone makes you wonder, and also the cover-artwork as well. Obviously, a drunkard walking down a lane, with a skinhead looking angry at him behind a wall... while he is getting closer to an opened manhole! This game MUST be fun, no doubt about it! So let us get a closer look at it. 

The game itself was released back in 1984 by Taskset, programmed by Tony Gibson (R.I.P). Commodore 64 was the only platform on which this game was released for. 

The game starts with your first night out as Bozo, having his very first pint of lager. After this one pint, then you have to get home to bed offcourse. But on the way from the bar and to your home, you have to avoid various obstacles offcourse. You don´t want to walk straight into skinheads, beautiful ladies or a copper otherwise you´ll end up straight into the hospital! After the visit to the hospital, you´ll start over offcourse (back in the bar drinking!). 

If you succeed in getting Bozo home to his bed, then you´ll continue with level 2 which means that the next night out Bozo he will drink more pints. This then means that Bozo will be harder and harder to control with your joystick!. How fun can a game be?!. There are offcourse some short-cuts in the game as well, take a walk through the park which offcourse inhabits monsters and other kinds of nasties!.   

So what are you waiting for? Buy some beers and invite your friends over, having a night out with Bozo on the Commodore 64-mini is all worth it!.

Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozo%27s_Night_Out

Download:

https://www.c64.com/games/566

Praying For Oblivion - Station Grau

If you don´t know Praying For Oblivion, then I can reveal to you that this harsh-noise/power-electronics project has been around for some time now. And has been highly productive aswell. Been around 1999, and has had releases via cult labels like Smell the Stenth, Cranial Fracture, and Tourette Tapes. This one came out last year via Spanish Marbre Negre (30 copies) and U.S-based Imploding Sounds (25 copies). A-side contains a 17 minutes live recording called Zodiak, while the B-side contains two tracks called Station Grau I & II.

We start the A-side with Zodiak. A metallic, ritualistic and blistering wall of dynamic harshness greets the listener. Static radio noise and occasional painful human voices can be sensed in the vortex. There is a physical presence in the sound, the sound of a rumbling microphone-thingy inside a dryer-machine-thingy. A lovely and dynamic live-recording delivering harsh-noise statements with an industrial and ritualistic edge to it. Love the "one more time" from some guy at the concert, and offcourse the noise continues... into burning oblivion offcourse!. Would love to have experienced this live concert!. 

We continue with the B-side which soundwise goes into another direction. Station Grau I is not a harsh-noise action, but more of an abstract low-tech experiment with a sound-track´ish approach. Surreal, musique concrete, early Dr. Who-soundtracks made by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop... that sort of stuff! And it´s actually very good, and incredibly inventive and dynamic.

The last track Station Grau II moves away from the abstract and moves a little bit closer to an intense bad trip. Not as subtle and quiet as the first one, but more of a nerve grinding tale to smother your ears into pulp. Not as interesting and mind-bending as the first Station Grau-track though.

A release having a great diversity in sound and dynamics. Great live recording, and some great moments with the Station Grau tracks. The release works and feels like some sort of an outlet of tracks, like a compilation. Would be great if the track had a clearer conceptual idea behind it... but as you guys know... that is how noise-artists work! Overall I think it is a great and interesting release, give it a spin! You can also purchase the t-shirt which came with it, check out the link below!

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/station-grau

Bandcamp (band):

https://prayingforoblivion.bandcamp.com/

Official website (band):

https://prayingforoblivion.webs.com/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR1_eDm92rF7hExa-dIRH3Tz2szkgXdjGTUOVSxf8uB24RWFMc9S4233Rvo

T-shirt:

https://my-store-a12ebd.creator-spring.com/listing/praying-for-oblivion?brk=fb70de5c7c&edit=1&fbclid=IwAR1pLckd-AGtoZo4U5SsaUGIurpCtMjlXlxJXMrevWEU1brm6mDE1Lf0UUc&product=2&variation=2397

 

            

 

Miasmata - Last Entrenchments 

Another thing out from the Copenhagen-based label Sektion 1. Another highly obscure act is called Miasmata with its debut called Last Entrenchments. 2 long tracks on each side of the cassette, about 20+ minutes in total. Again Sektion 1 nails the cover-artwork/design for the release, lovely cardboard paper, and excellent printing as well. Not sure what the artwork is trying to illustrate, but it thickens the mystery and heightens any abstract thoughts. The cassette is limited to 50 copies.

The album starts with something which sounds like a radio recording, some radio channel playing bombastic classical music of some sort. The pleasantness slowly grinds into the raw territory of industrial harsh noise. Very sort of the late 80s vibe here, early Grey Wolves/Macronymphia sort of sound. Very dynamic and chaotic with the classical radio-music going on in the background, could be a live performance? The whole thing sounds like something is being disintegrated, or something being grinds into absolute nothingness. 

The second track again has some interesting recordings going on. Very low-fi and very eerie vibe going on. It really does show how creative you can get with a primitive approach. A bewitching slice of industrial harshness, or just call it atmospheric/ritualistic harsh noise. If some soldier in the first world war was doing some sort of harsh noise in the trenches, it could sound like this!

I turn the cassette to the B-side and jump into the third track. Obscure radio recording with some lovely analog industrial minimalism. It´s not all harsh noise and all that, highly experimental recordings going on in here. Again, sort of takes me back to a time when noise was more of an experimental nature rather than being noisier than your neighbor-approach. Fans of early MB/Sacher-Pelz would love this. Tons of diversity in this track!

The fourth track (and the last) returns to the classic sound of early harsh noise. Screaming feedbacks, rumbling sounds, looped soundscapes... Reminds me of early Con Dom (without vocals though) and the radio-recording of some opera going on in the background. Again, the whole thing has a lovely live feeling attached to it.

And that was the 4 tracks on the album. It´s harsh noise in the interesting section of the store. A lovely old-school early 90s/late 80s sound to this. Lots of mood and lots of dynamics/diversity going on, not a boring release at all. A lovely treat for the senses!. 

Official website (label):

https://sektion1.bigcartel.com/

Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/label/1637277-Sektion1

      

Flow Control - Endless March 

Elm Records is at it again with one of their latest releases by a new and unknown act called Flow Control. I did a search on Discogs but couldn´t find any info regarding this new act, but what I did locate was a Bandcamp site that held 3 other only-digital releases. The act is described as something which lurks in the realms of ambient, lo-fi, classic IDM, and synth-wave music. The album endless March was released on Elm Records on cassette (30 copies) on the first of April 2021 and it isn´t available on Flow Control´s official Bandcamp site. Another thing that I can reveal about this album is that it works around a certain concept built on an experience... here goes:

This album is called "Endless March”. It’s an ambient exploration into alienation and anxiety, which I began composing near the onset of the pandemic but gained significant meaning as I watched the Bighorn Wildfire engulf my home wilderness in Tucson, AZ at the time of the riots. It became a contemplative journey into the sonic landscape of the fires that raged in my backyard and within our current social conditions. The work is 3 tracks in which I explore these using field recordings, tape loops, eurorack modular synths, and piano.

I like the concept. I like the idea when you have, stuff that crashes into another and then afterward creates another kind of view on things. Yes, a worldwide pandemic is a pretty big deal, but so is a wildfire (and the riots going on as well). Between the first and the second world war, people didn´t have time to worry about the Spanish flu... although it actually killed around 25-50 million people. Big things/stuff is happening all the time, and it usually happens so fast in our information-driven society that our minds cannot actually relate to it when it does happen. Enough of my philosophical mumbo-jumbo, let´s get it on!.

First track Normalcy. Gives the listener an idea of being somewhere where the land is flat, and the sky is huge! Not much is going on, the essence of quietness is there for sure. Somewhere along the line in this quiet and peaceful place, something is changing (going on). The sound of something burning? Melancholic ambient moods and a beautiful glass/crystal-like drone sound. There is also a piano-driven melody hiding in the vapors of the wasteland. and eerie tv-samples going on. A very good and mysterious ambient-drone piece with a good adventurous expression of sound.

We flip over the cassette and start the B-side with the second track, called Release. Backward recorded piano recordings going on at the same time as the normal piano recording, lovely slow-driven melodies going on as well. A really kind of sad sort of a track. Getting back to some of the drone/post-rock-related stuff made by The Swans here. Also, a kind of Angelo Badalamenti feel/mood going on. Really good ambient stuff going on here kids!. 

The last track Summer Fires works like a beautiful ending for a beautiful album. After the wildfire, things will grow (hopefully). There is hope/light beyond the tunnel. Might just be my favorite track on the album, certainly the most mysterious track on the alum.

And that ends the Endless March! A beautiful and relaxing trip through an unsettling apocalyptic setting! Fans of Steve Roach, Swans, and Brian Eno take notice. An album filled with contradictions, apocalyptic and sad, but also very peaceful.

Bandcamp (label):

https://elmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/endless-march

Bandcamp (Band):

https://flow-ctrl.bandcamp.com/

  

    

 Hiroyuki Chiva & K2

Interesting (and new) release from Spanish Marbgre Negre. A japanoise split cassette release between Hiroyuki Chiva and K2. As far as I can see, there might be a type error here. It´s Hiroyuki Chiba (not Chiva). And we´re talking about a re-release, originally from Chiba´s own label called Eerie Noise Records which was then re-released on Marbre Negre. A quick introduction, Chiba has been active since 2018 as a highly productive Japanese noise artist and label-owner (Bandcamp link below), K2...on the other hand, is one of the Japanoise-veterans (and pioneers) who has been around 1983 (check him out on Discogs/Bandcamp). So let us brace ourselves for a trip to the noisy landscapes of Japan!.

The first track on the A-side (which is with Hiroyuki Chiva) is called Drum Processing II is all about... organized humming and hissing high-frequency sounds. Sort of an ear-opener/introduction. Not much to go at, but strangely likable if you ask me.

The second track Two Oscillators head jumps into action-driven noise. Therapeutic noise, the sound of something that drives really fast and stops really quickly too. In the process, it rams into several objects on the way. Could also be the sound of a modified digital blender? I like the honest sound brutality here so far. 

The third track Sirenhead II (as the Internet monster Sirenhead?) continues the brutal roar which was started by the former track. A more of a bass-rumbling treat with some squeals and cuts here and there. Lots of stuff actually going on here! I love the speed/tempo of this.

The fourth track Improvisation of Voice and Oscillators turns the mad tension even higher. A high-pitched vocal sound gets smashed into absolute noisy oblivion. Imagining splintering pieces of metallic shrapnel here for some reason... I can almost smell it!

The fifth track Siren Head I sounds a bit like Siren Head II, with some extra gritty sound effects on it. Some of the sounds almost had a kind of retro 8-bit sort of sound?

The last track on the A-side is Drum Processing I, which sounds a lot like Drum Processing II. Although the track is a bit shorter. 

WE flip the cassette and continue with the B-side in the company of K2. A 13+ minute long track called Raijiun-Fujin. If you ask me what that means, then I can tell you that Raijiun Fujin being two gods who are guards at some Sanjusangendo temple in Japan. God/Gods of lightning, storms in Japanese Mythology. The track starts with cleaning your ears (and mind) with a numbing and hypnotizing drilling sound with reverbed atmospheric/ritualistic undercurrents. Mind fucking and epic noise/sound-scapes with lots of interesting psychedelic effects, the sounds kinda remind me of Maurizio Bianchi/MB in a way. There is lots of meat on this bone and lots of reason to re-listen the track a couple of times. It´s quite spacy in a brutal way, but also gentle in a slow-progressive sort of fashion. 

And that ends the tape! I did like the minimalistic work by Hiroyuki Chiva, but it wasn´t as groundbreaking and mind-fucking as K2. K2 is really a noisy space trip to the other side of the galaxy, while Hiroyuki stays behind on the solid ground. Not a bad thing really, I think that the two artists have successfully created a great split and both acts are delivering their own expression on each side of the tape. A great japanoise treat here kids!.       

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/split-14

Bandcamp (artist+label):

https://hiroyukichiba.bandcamp.com/music

Bandcamp (artist):

https://k2music3.bandcamp.com/

 Ideal Father - Paradice Death

I am a huge fanboy I am of this incredible obscure act, the second album out with Swedish-based Ideal Father. For those who haven´t yet read or checked out the former review of the debut, I would strongly suggest that you do so. Limited tape release of 45 copies released by Exebyss Records. It comes in a beautiful and thick cardboard cassette slipcase, with completely black tape inside. All there is to say about Ideal Father is that they are one of the few acts around who does what you would call death ambient. A term loosely connected with the death-industrial term. Some of the early Cold Meat Industry releases were coined either as black ambient or death ambient, in other words, a more ambient orientated version of death industrial. Not that we should forget the sound of Slaughter Productions' excellent compilation Death Odors! 

A Mind In Evil Ruin is the first track on the A-side of the tape. A sinister hissing sound, human screams can be heard (far away) via a long hallway, bone-crushing bass, metallic distortions... just about everything inhuman you can think of. A perfect sound that should be heard by every horror-movie soundtrack lover! True death-ambient for sure!. 

The second track called In Paradice Death offers psychedelic and flanged sounds and ritualistic and distorted black-metal vocals. A very chilled, sadistic, creepy, and clinical dark-ambient track. 

The third track Blood Torrent moves back to the sound of the first track, more in the classic death-industrial sound. Heavy and guitar/bass-based distortions give it all a lovely analog sound, whispering, and reverbed vocals, with drone-based dark-ambient undertones to go with it. Sounds like someone is being possessed here!

The fourth track Crepuscular Soul gets way deeper into repetitive morbid psychedelics. Looped and echoed samples, a religious-sounding noise wall (A bit like NON), excellent and sinister synth-work as well!. A rare thing indeed, and a thing we need more in death-industrial/ambient. Synth-keys folks!. A beautiful and haunting track indeed!.

The fifth track Tongue Mosaic is where it gets... weird and genuinely scary. How one can make a distorted squealing noise sound like someone actually weeping. All of that is going on in the background while a hypnotizing feeling sucks you right in. Like falling through an endless pit of sounds. The sensation of feeling weightless, in a rather unpleasant way if you ask me. A really wow sort of a track, it also offers something new to the sound as well. 

Crosshair Mantra is the sixth track on the album. A flesh scraping ambient piece with ritualistic undercurrents. Love the bits of human-like sounds/voices to be heard here and there... almost hidden. 

The seventh track Wall of Crying Eyes screams for attention. Bone-narrowing sinisterness all packed nicely in a psychedelic Wunder Baum. Elements of cosmic horror are added to the mix here, fans of early Lyke Wake take notice. 

There are two more tracks left on the B-side, but I will leave the curious listener to explore them themselves. A thorough and well-thought death-ambient/industrial-focused album. It has all the right ingredients, and the atmosphere is there as well. And it will/can leave you quite speechless! For fans of BDN´s Necrose Evangelicum and early CMI!.  

Bandcamp (label):

https://exabyssrecords.bandcamp.com/album/paradice-death?fbclid=IwAR1aYime0LMSFXQT_86eh5BWOGzPUR4qCz4LlwMJ3KfcKYmNb84fhZNXsko

          

Thee Secrete Society - Thee First Secrete 

A mysterious and highly esoteric themed act that has been in existence since 2014 has finally released its debut! Containing members from well well-known acts like B°Tong, 1000Schoen, and Feine Trinkers Bei Pinkels Dahiem. A 75 released tape copies from Marbre Negre, lovely grey and silvery tape with text and a sexy occult-looking cover-artwork. Already curious?... Good!.

The first track Invocation starts the album in a ritualistic and dark-ambient lowkey manner. Not that far away from the early recordings by Ain Soph. Cold, deep, and hypnotizing ritualistic electronics submerge the listener into another world. Something strange going on in the background though. Strange reversed vocals and a strange sound of someone... messing with something. A lovely ear-opener if you ask me!

The second track Curse introduces a sound that sounds like a recorded toy piano in echoed reversed, distorted, and warped ritualistic vocals, icy electronic sounds with a techno-ambient Biosphere sort-of-a-feel, and the clattering of metallic bells. Interesting mixture of minds and ideas getting together here.

The third track (You Spoil The) Atmosphere is not a track that spoils the atmosphere! Quite the contrary! Cosmic ambient with a Lovecraftian twitch/Cosmic-horror if you ask me. A horrific and cold/cool track that offers a feeling you get... when you are experiencing a nasty lucid dream! Swirling murkiness, rumbling and infernal background noises (which sounds like a stomach!), icy and precise electronics, whispering voices from the shadows. Everything is nasty here, but incredibly pleased to hear at the same time. Lots of brains here people!

With the next (and fourth) track, you´ll have to turn over the tape cause now we are at the B-side of the album! Stars Right Be Wrong goes further into the cosmic-horror-sound. Metallic drones and rumbling spaceship ambient sounds blast the listener into deep space! The spoken-word vocals are soo well made here, talking about using the right effects at the right moment here people! The ambient and the atmosphere are just amazing here, very sincere and very convincing! Love the slow-flanged sound effect at the end, makes me think back to Throbbing Gristle´s live recording of Discipline.

The fifth track is called Cleansening Ceremony. A mesmerizing piece with psychedelic undertones. The listener will get slightly confused and hypnotized here, a lovely intermission for the last track!

The last track is called The Key To Annihilation. Starts in the same low-key ambient ritual mood as the first track. Might just be the most relaxing and most (slightly) melancholic piece on the album. It´s here where the listener might just feel that sensation of levitation! Whoever said that annihilation is a thing of ugliness, this track is a piece of sheer minimalistic loveliness.  

A masterpiece of an album, a way of just saying... ´if you are going out to create a dark-ambient album, make sure it is an interesting one!´. Thee First Secrete is interesting and is bound to end up as a classic album that pushes the dark-ambient style into new cosmic-horror territories!

Bandcamp (label):

https://marbrenegre.bandcamp.com/album/thee-first-secrete

Facebook (band):

https://www.facebook.com/theesecretesociety

    

     

    

 Cordes - Quatre-Vingt-Onze Dojens

Cordes means Strings and the album title is translated to Ninty One Deans. And a dean is someone in authority with a Christian/religious background or just someone with authority in some eduacational establishment. Or are we talking about all-time actor Harry Dean Stanton, he died at the age of 91?! Hard to say really. Maybe we should try to dissect this limited 4-track mini-album/cassette release from Sektion 1, and then try to get to the bottom of this!

The first track called Témoins (Witnesses) starts with an eerie sort of warped radio clatter and the sound of a flatline. Heavy, cold, and distorted bass drones are added while an interesting metallic dripping noise can be heard in the background (When fluid hits a metallic surface like a sink). So far we are dealing with a classic old-school death-industrial sound, in the same vein as Atrax Morgue, Maurizio Bianchi, or even early Cluster!. A very cold and depressive sound indeed. 

The second track Quatre-Vingt-Onze Donjons (Ninty-One Deans) enters into cold ritualistic electronics. Humming sounds from an abandoned mine/cellar factory, completely devoid of any kind of human activity. You can imagine the sort of sounds you get when you record something in total silence in an abandoned and haunted site and then turn up the volume to actually hear how silence really sounds. Someone actually did that in Chernobyl! A beautiful track here!

 

The third track L'æil Dans Le Næud De La Corde (Eye in the knot of the robe) being one of the most harshest and hypnotic tracks on the album. A lowkey and low-tech analog-driven throbbing piece of depressive delight. 

The fourth and last track Manipulé Par La Fosse (Manipulated by the pit) ends the delightful album in a sacrificial ritual of morbid fascination. Lovely sort of after-the-bomb sort of mood going on in here, very post-apocalyptic and very gritty and dark. Fans of Slaughter Productions would dig this, I am 100% sure!     

Is it a tribute to that cool actor (Harry Dean Stanton) or are we dealing with 91 religious-teacher deans caught in some post-apocalyptic nightmare? I don't know. All I know is that if the person behind this act has focussed on creating a very dense and dark low-tech sounding album of ritualistic intent, then he/she has succeeded perfectly! The sound is as dark, mysterious, and obscure as the act itself. If you want to hear more, then you can hear more on Cordes's official Soundcloud site (see link below!).  

Official website (label):

https://sektion1.bigcartel.com/

Soundcloud (band):

https://soundcloud.com/cordes-91

 Cities In Ruins - Athanor Of Souls

I have been around this label that has released this interesting new cassette with a new project called... Cities In Ruins. I am talking about the same label (Machine Tribe Recordings) which released that excellent album with Bonechurch, which I reviewed offcourse (see former review, google search Bonechurch + Kalteldur!). 25 copies and hand-numbered gun-metal cassettes (Be quick!). With this release, we are only dealing with about...23 minutes,3 tracks. But as you all know, a mini-ep could be as potent and good as a full-length.

The first track is called Dark Soul Of The Night, which is also the longest track (11.25 minutes). The track takes the whole of the first A-side of the cassette, while the other two tracks are on the B-side. The first thing that pops into your mind (or imagination) is that the intro sound/feel of the first track fits the mood which the cover artwork actually shows. Think about how time affects the modern achievements of man, how great buildings and great monuments will eventually crumple to... well rubble. Think about the emotions swirling inside you when you enter some grand building that once has been a thriving place for people, and all you can sense and feel are the leftovers/fingerprints of the people who once have been there. That's the exact feeling I get when I am hearing this track. Strangely haunting dark-ambient with a touch of neoclassical aesthetics. In the realm of acts like Raison d´être and Desiderii Marginis if you please. Although I would say that this track has a bit more edge to the sound than Desiderii Marginis, and more atmosphere than how Raison D´être sounds today.  

The next two tracks on the B-side are called Athanor of Souls, while the last one is an alternate version. The track starts with the sound of rusty machines in a great hall, this gets replaced by an icy, lovely, and lush synth-ambient sound. A technoid pulse is also being added, but not the dancy kind ( don't worry! ). A lovely mesmerizing, and psychedelic piece of grandiose melancholy. Very much back to the days when Peter Andersson (Raison D´être) worked around his side-project called Atomine Elektrine, with some Tangerine Dream in there as well!. Isn't that much difference between the two versions, although I do think that the alternate version has a slightly more psychedelic, beatless, and slower feel to it. Both versions are good and offer two sides of the same coin/story. Depends on which mood you are in offcourse!. 

I like it. Pretty much. Would love a full-length. I have missed that early sound which was forgotten back in the 90s, dark ambient/industrial-ambient with that berlin-school/neo-classical vibe to it. A project to keep your eye and ears on, let us hope for a full-length ok?!. 

Bandcamp (label):

https://mtrecdistro.bandcamp.com/album/athanor-of-souls