dark ambient / drone / ambient / experimental 

Sombre Soniks

The Sombre Soniks label returns with edition fourteen of their bi-annual compilation series, simply named 'Dark Ambient'. Usually, for these compilations, the acts within Sombre Soniks stable create new and exclusive tracks, based around one certain theme. This time, the label asked the project to create a soundtrack for an imaginary horror movie. In that, pretty much all of these acts have succeeded very well. 'Dark Ambient 14' is loaded with dark soundscapes, haunting field recordings and eerie atmospheres. When you purchase 'Dark Ambient Vol. 14' for £1 or more and you will receive an exclusive bonus mini-compilation as well.

Front Sonore opens the whole thing with an old school dark ambient track that reminds of acts like Raison D'Etre or Sephiroth. Over the haunting soundscapes, a sirene slowly lures you into the music. Next up is Cousin Silas and his long winded, gloomy track 'Quatermass Has A Late Breakfast'. This 30 minute track is perfectly suited as soundtrack for a shortfilm, perhaps one about the aftermath of war, or something like that.

Øystein Jørgensen -delivered a minimal track, called 'The Event'. Again, this is perfect soundtrack material, this time for something post apocalyptic perhaps. Scott Lawlor's 'Dark Autumn Dreams' is another huge track, forty minutes this time. Druhá Smrt imagined something in a medieval or ancient European setting while Uzbazur seems to dwell in abandoned factories or caves where strange creatures lurk. 

I'm not really planning a track by track review for this album but the quality and the level of variation on these first six make me realize something. It's been seven years since Sombre Soniks released the first edition of these compilations and many of the acts appearing on number 14 have been on previous editions too. I have been on them with my own project, Misantronics. My exclusive track 'Usher's Crypt' is on this compilation too.

But what I noticed throughout the years and throughout the compilations, is how most of these acts have grown. Druhá Smrt, Taphephobia,  sp3ct3rs, Grist, Babalith,... all of them are becoming indistinguishable from their predecessors like Svartsinn, Raison D'Etre, Lustmord.... The fact that Svartsinn is on this compilation, tells a great deal about the quality of the whole thing, not only this compilation but the entire Sombre Soniks label.  

So of course I will recommend the hell out of this album, not because I'm on it, but because this is a perfect overview of the current state of dark ambient and its related genres. I'm proud to be on this one and I'm proud to be a part of this amazing stable of artists. So go ahead, purchase this album now. It's definitely worth it since there are literally hours of music to be found. Now if you'll excuses me, I'm going to play it again and dwell in the haunted worlds of Sombre Soniks...


Serge

dark ambient / drone

I've seen the dark ambient scene evolve a lot in the past few years. I have seen and heard most of the groundbreaking acts on labels like Cold Meat Industry and Cyclic Law from the very beginning. Ever since I discovered the genre, I've been fascinated by it and it has been a constant throughout all my musical endeavors. So I'm extremely glad to see that this style is still alive and kicking. Ever more so, in recent years, it has gotten even more interesting with acts like CHVE, Barst, Empusae and this Swiss act, Sum Of R. The ritualist approach takes the upper hand again, which is a good thing. 

Sum Of R was formed by Reto Mäder in 2008. Fabio Costa joined the project shortly after. During live performances, they use guitars, effects, drums, synths, samples and drones to create a dark yet hypnotic atmosphere. On this album, their third full-length they do exactly the same, influenced by everything between dark ambient, noise, post rock/metal, electronic and psychedelic music. The result is a fascinating listening experience, an event for body and mind.

The majority of the tracks on this album are slowly pulsating soundscapes and drones while others seem to borrow elements from modern classical music and soundtracks. Personally, I'm most fond of the ones with percussion, like 'Like & Dust'. My favorite track is 'Overgrown', which after the intro, immediately drags the listener down into a whirlpool of impending drones and soundscapes. 

The level of variation on this album is perfect. Every track seems to have its own identity, its own set of different elements. Yet, the whole thing is coherent and unmistakably Sum Of R. 'Cobalt Power' for instance, reminds me a lot of the current wave of dark jazz bands, like Dale Cooper Quartet or Bohren Und Der Club Of Gore. On other occasions, Sunn O))) isn't far off. But in all, this is simply a brilliant piece of dark music, one I will recommend to every dark soul out there.


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dark ambient

black metal

post hardcore

drone / dark ambient

doom / post rock

death metal / punk 

doom / sludge 

hardcore / metal

experimental / ambient / noise

bandcamp

funeral doom

black metal

speed metal / black metal

bandcamp

death metal / grindcore

techno / rave / house

techno

Serge

dark ambient / black metal / dungeon synth

bandcamp

Azazel Bedazzle is a thoroughly amazing, incredible and majestic dungeon synth album, released on August 19, by Witches Moon. Forty minutes long, the record has nine tracks:  Spices, Six of Wands, Hiraeth, The Light of Love, Sex Faerie, Magick, Moonlight Frost (Kangchenjunga), Winters Blackened Stars and the title track, Azazel Bedazzle. Although a relatively typical dungeon synth work, Azazel Bedazzle has courageous, dense, and vivacious harmonies, amazingly sidelined by a correlation of bizarre, yet colorful atmospheres, that encircle with a taciturn, but hopeful beauty the astonishing musical devices of its frivolously stylish melodies. 

With a consistent sonority that seems to analyze the foregoing evolutionary principles of its majestic rhetoric of universal paradigms, the enigmatic astuteness of Witches Moon’s music is an attestation of ambivalent harmonious cadences: with the softness of a pure, yet overstated serenity, there is a hidden, subtlety evasive layout of anxiety, that is eager to maximize and extend the amplitude of its vastness over the entire ordination of an ambiguous panorama of dense and intricate elements of logic and rationality. 

With a superior conscience that seems to know precisely the place of its magnificent art, despite the fact that Azazel Bedazzle is a very simple album, it’s deeply graceful and overwhelming beauty transcends the splendor of its own subjective sonorous vastness. In an alternate reality where everything is a possibility that comprehends the lucid projections of the mind, as well as the sensitive imponderability of centennial thoughts, Witches Moon gives us an eccentric, preciously exotic musical flavor, whose everlasting calmness keeps perpetually waiting for the imperial alignment of a monumental eclipse inside the idyllic mortuary of an infinite soul. 

Simple, pleasurable, beautiful – amazingly marvelous, to say the least – Azazel Bedazzle is a very captivating and salutary work of art, whose intense, deep, reverberating and expansive atmospheres can transform and expose imaginary places, and make them as real as life. At least, inside your mind, as long as the album is playing.   

 

Wagner

When I started these Brieviews series over a year ago, the initial idea is to empty my inbox by writing shorter reviews for EP's, reissues, singles and a few full length albums. Back then, I was talking about 900 unread emails. That amount has tripled since then and we're already at part 25. That's a lot of short reviews if you ask me. Anyway, here are some more Brieviews for your reading and listening enjoyment. 

dark ambient

heavy metal

black metal / thrash metal

post rock

drone / dark ambient

bandcamp

stoner rock / hard rock

gothic metal / symphonic metal

black metal

Larval Productions

post punk / gothic rock

grindcore

Serge

dark ambient

I love dark ambient concerts. Some people might find that weird because - on average - not that much happens on these events. Usually, it's one man, a laptop and/or some electronics and a slowly moving background projection. Then again, at those concerts, most attendees are sitting down, eyes closed, experiencing an elaborate introvert journey. At least, that's how I enjoy these concerts. That's also how I would have enjoyed this concert by Croatian dark ambient project TeHÔM. This one track album was recorded live at 'The Keep Ambient Lodge' at 2016’s Brutal Assault Festival in the Czech Republic. Now, you can pre-order the album, and you should.

TeHÔM delivers deep, ritual dark ambient music which evokes images of ancient cultures and wanderings through one's own psyche. The album is a 45 minutes lasting epos of soundscapes, hypnotic percussion and eerie noises.  The repetitive percussion give the whole thing a highly immersive atmosphere and it comes with enough variation to maintain the listener's attention. Although mostly electronic, the music feels organic, which is always a good aspect in this genre.

Any fan of dark ambient music can easily add this album to his collection, right next to classics from Lustmord, Raison D'Etre, Inade and Svartsinn. The sound quality is perfect, being recorded both at the mixing board and through two microphones. With your eyes closed, you can easily imagine being there. So yes, I can only recommend this album to all dark ambient aficionados out there. This is simply an excellent recording of an awe inspiring concert.


Serge

drone / dark ambient / noise

I don't always pluck albums from the internet in order to review them. In fact, I almost never do that since I'm already overloaded in review requests. However, once in awhile something special comes up, something with a story, something that I absolutely want to share with my beloved readers.

With this review I'd like to pay my respects to Roman Mozharov‎ and his work with the 'Build Your House Underground' project. Roman works with  people with severe mental and physical impairments.. He literally brings music to these people's life as he helps them express their emotions through sound.

Solomon's Keys is the musical project of Konstantin, who is paralyzed and can only move his head. With the aid of Roman Mozharov and computers, Konstantin creates dark drones and eerie soundscapes, but also manages to add rhythm and and electronic sequences. The result is a fascinating trip, immersive dark ambient with an impending atmosphere. I'm really fond of this release, not only because of the story behind it but also - and perhaps mostly - because this is a deeply emotional high quality dark ambient album.

When I listen to the tracks on this album, Zoviet France comes to mind, but also Lustmord, Raison D'être and numerous other classics in this genre. Here and there the whole thing nudges towards the noise scene but it never gets too harsh or chaotic. Some passages might be somewhat to creepy or spooky for the average listener but then again, that's what dark ambient is supposed to sound like. So obviously, I can only recommend this gem to all dark ambient fans out there. Download, donate, enjoy. 


​Serge


p.s. Roman's 'Build Your House Underground' project has also released a compilation last year. You can download that here.

dark ambient

Instead of compiling another Sunday Evening Sessions, I spent my evening listening to the Unexplained Sounds  radio transmission. I can't say I regret that decision. It's a good show with some dark and atmospheric music, plus it's got a chatroom with a bunch of nice people.

One of the acts played on the show was Urs Wild, an electronic music project from Switzerland. My brain immediately linked me back to earlier today when I downloaded the album for a near-future review. It had been sent to me by Raffaele Pezzella, the man behind the earlier mentioned radio show.

So after the radio transmission, I immediately decided to start writing this review, regardless of the circumstances (a friend visiting, attention seeking cat, that kind of stuff). Why? Well, because this is a remarkable dark ambient album where drones, electronic sequences, soundscapes and deep percussion create an organic and psychedelic atmosphere, despite of being mostly electronic. Being an electronic music composer ànd a music reviewer, I can confirm the fact that an organic sound with electronic equipment is not an easy task to accomplish. But Urs Wild did exactly that.

What I like most about this album is it's alternation between droning dark ambient and  cold industrial sounds. Perhaps this is what happens when you put Lustmord, IIVII and Ah Cama Sotz together in a studio. I'm also quite fond of the repetitive nature of some of these tracks. 'Ritualized' is a brilliant piece of work and 'Hidden Matter' is an magnificent psychedelic trip. Then again, most of the track are. I mean, 'Sea of Unnatural Presence' drives on one of the best drones I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of drones.

Many dark ambient albums, especially debuts, are promising but rather one-sided. As a big fan of the genre, that often bothers me. 'Hidden Universe' is the exact opposite. It's a deep, immersive album with plenty of variation. There is not a dull moment to be found. Each track has its own identity and still the whole album has a great conceptual feel. So yes, I'm a fan and I will recommend this album to every fan of dark ambient music. It's going to be hard to find something better than this, I'm afraid.


​Serge

drone / ambient

Cruel Bones

According to the biography, both sides of this dark ambient split contain the banjo, which immediately grabbed my attention. The banjo is not a very common instrument in the dark music scenes but, as you might know, black metal band Taake threw a brilliant banjo solo in his song 'Myr'.

And if he can do that, all dark music producers can do that. I might probably do that too on one of my upcoming Misantronics releases, who knows. But for now, I'll just enjoy these two elongated drone tracks (plus epilogue). After all, it's still Sunday and I'm still into slow and gloomy.

Swamp Flower Rhyme is a duo, started by Tobias Kalt, guitarist for Forlet Sires. He focuses on minimal drones with guitars, tape loops and synthesizers. 'Longing' is exactly that, a long, droning piece of dark ambient, with 21.44 minutes the longest on this split. Minimalism is definitely a keyword here and the whole thing reminds me of something between Raison D'Etre and Dirk Serries. Yep, that's a compliment.

Aeronaut (Steve Fors from Shovels Beat The Sun) delivered two tracks, the fifteen minutes lasting drone ambient track 'American Gothic' and the short 'Epilogue'. The first one is weird, driving on what sounds like a broken techno sequence and gradually getting darker, noisier. I like this kind of experimentality, even when it starts nudging towards the harsh noise scene. 'Epilogue' closes in style by being a nice ambient tune.

In all, this is a very interesting split with over forty minutes of excellent ambient experimentation. I can only recommend it to all you droners out there. Buy the album, dim the lights, lay down, press play and let your imagination do the rest. You won't regret it...


​Serge