drone / ambient / electronic

Sea of Tranquility is the most recent album by an unknown electronic music artist, known only by the alias of Realm. Thirty minutes long, the record has only three tracks: the eponymous Sea of Tranquility, We Will Return to the Stars and Majestic Embrace. With a quiet, subtle and introspective musical proposal, that deeply perpetuates at the alignment of its obscurely serene melodies the confluence of a sonorous secrecy bound by the terrain of virtuous and intensely glorifying harmonies, Sea of Tranquility is a silent ghost among shadows, trying to duplicate the inspirational vicissitudes of its graceful healings in a liquid world of voracious opacity, upon which all states of consciousness rely quiet on a single element of musical confinement. 

Superficially, Sea of Tranquility can be described as the traditional ambient/ drone album, although the record really has unexpected qualities, and a very singular style of its own. With somber nuances, and a marvelous stream of darker intonations – without being de facto a mostly obscure album – Sea of Tranquility really has a pervasively subtle layer of ambiguity deeply entranced into the sound. It is almost possible to feel a wonderful lust for sincerity ostensibly evaluated at the axial truth of its sonorous perceptive guidance, located inside the primordial hardline of the voracious symptoms of its delusional sense of artistry.

Definitely a very interesting album, that expands the colossal greatness of its veracity inside the dense spectacle of its relentless musical dogma, Sea of Tranquility seems to fulfill the sensibility of a wider scale of nobility into a very pragmatic level of darkness, upon which the senses gets used to a very profound type of descendant wave. And all that you can feel, suddenly, is another kind of universe touching your skin, your senses, your mind, and finally, your soul. A warm journey profoundly exhilarated by the greatness of an exacerbated sensibility, conducted by an ambivalent musical vehicle, that departs from the engines of your own spirit.

Definitely, Sea of Tranquility is a very perceptive and introspective album, upon which the listener will be able to wander, in a perpetual dream-like state, that closely resembles a unity with nothingness. A profound intimacy with the unknown deep space, this album really enables anyone to find the deepest treasures of one’s own truth.   


Wagner

drone / ambient

What would happen if you asked five musicians to improvise a soundtrack for a presentation of your film in a church in Paris and record it? That's what Ho Tzu Nyen must have asked himself, and I'm very glad he realized this. His post-apocalyptic film Earth must be very impressive according to what I've read about it, but also according to what comes out of the speakers. 

French drone quartet Foudre hadn't met neoclassical composer Christine Ott before the day of the concert, which adds to the magic of this album. The eerie tones of her ondes martenot match perfectly with the equally nostalgic and intriguing sounds generated by multiple analog synthesisers. Guitar-driven drones and several electronic effects make the general atmosphere complete: an expert level of immersion... 

Give a shoulder massage to a cat and you'll see the same effect as this music has on me. I'd purr equally loudly if I could. But restricted by my human form, I just sit motionless while the soul balming sounds do their work. What an album! 

For fans of all things that drone out of the box. 


​Eline

ambient / drone / experimental

Polar Seas Recordings

Another album from from Polar Seas Recordings and mesmerizing piece of ambient. 'Up Below' by April Larson is a dark, mystifying and inspiring album that every fan of (dark) ambient needs to check out. I put the word 'dark' between parentheses because I'm not exactly sure if this is meant to be a dark ambient album, but it damn well is. The eight tracks on this one are eerie soundscapes and quite often sound like the desperate cries of doomed souls.

Not that I mind, on the very contrary. This album only came in a few days ago and it is already a constant in my ever growing ambient playlist. With good reason too, it's a brilliant album. It's so good that I only have one point of criticism: seven of these tracks are way too short. Like many of us, I am a fan of long, elaborate and stretched out sonic landscapes which seem to last forever. Oh well, I guess I'll just put them on endless repeat.

That being said, you might also say that this album lacks variation as pretty much everything here consists of these haunting soundscapes and drones. However, we ambient aficionados really don't mind, as long as the atmosphere is right. And in that April Larson definitely succeeded. This album comes highly recommended to all ambient fans, bright or dark, doesn't matter. I strongly suggest checking it out. You will not be disappointed.


​Serge

drone, doom, stoner rock

Across the River of Time is an album by drone/ doom/ stoner German duo Father Sky Mother Earth, released on April 2.  Thirty seven minutes long, the record has only two tracks:  The Return of Alhazred and the eponymous Across the River of Time. Primarily atmospheric in nature, with an intensely sinister layout of dense expectations, the sonorous style of Father Sky Mother Earth is thoroughly lenient, but distinctly voracious as well. As strange as it seems, despite little rhythmic variations and the general uniformity of the sound, monotony and exasperation are out of the equation here: their style is promising, enduring, solid and consistent, and the anguish provoked and emancipated by the afflictive expectancy generated by the agonizing behavior whimsically dilapidated by their sound is not only purposefully well designed, but majestically monumental as well.

The nature of their music is profoundly ambivalent, and unmistakably pragmatic. Not only enabling, but sustaining an irrevocable atmosphere that produces anguish and anxiety in the general syncope of its soundscape, the two tracks present on this album legitimately captures within the axis of its own interior universe an essentially hostile and dense definition of dying disillusion. The affinity expressed in the deeply fugacious ordeal of the music has an imponderable strength over the listener, and you feel magically bound to the intense and dubious atmospheric nature of the work.     

An interesting record – almost esoteric in the rapture contrivances of its anatomy – that sensibly replicates in the nature of its own purpose the exhilaration of a personal universe undefined by the characteristics of a singular crisis, Across the River of Time is an album with high probabilities to impress any audience. The intense power that emanates from its insidious, perfidious, densely vast, exponentially rude and ecstatic – but at the same time beautiful – melodies makes this record a highlight of the genre. The subtle intrusive behavior of the music deeply contrasts with its capacity to insert into the innermost molecules of the melodies a calm transient pattern of anxious expectation, that revolves around a corner that ostensibly ignores its correlation with an imaginary parallel universe of dilacerating nothingness.  

A dense, pervasive, somber and intricate album, Across the River of Time is a sinister, but overwhelming drone/ doom/ ambient record, that expands in the discreet side of its nature the nefarious audacity of its intentions. True to the sober and consistent vitality of the work, Father Sky Mother Earth certainly has created one of the most wonderful, tense, abrasive and fiercely despondent masterpieces ever conceived in the history of the genre. 


Wagner

drone / dark ambient

Years ago, my musical endeavors focused mainly on dark ambient and ritual industrial. I devoured everything that labels like Cold Meat Industry released. In later years, pretty much after the demise of CMI, I start wandering into different territories to satisfy my dark ambient needs. Those eventually lead me to love and respect our own Belgian drone and ambient acts, including CHVE, Barst, Dirk Serries, Stratosphere, Ashtoreth, acts who inspired me to make my own little steps into the world of ambient, drone and noise.

Empusae, the alter ego of Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe is no stranger to me. During those old days, I often listened to his music, often in playlists along with acts like Sophia, Deutsch Nepal, Sephiroth, Raison D'Etre and so on. However, for some reason both forms of ambient have always been separated, at least to me. But at one point Empusae found his way to Consouling Sounds and started cooperating with Barst. Now, after all is said and done, there is this new album, one which once again proves the Belgian dominance in this scene.

'Lueur' consists of two tracks, each lasting a bit over twenty minutes. If you want a short description, you can see this as a perfect marriage between Sephiroth and CHVE or between Sophia and Barst. Both worlds of ambient and dark industrial come together perfectly well here, thriving on Empusae's talent for gloomy but immersive music and the brilliant guest appearance by Colin H. Van Eeckhout (CHVE, AmenRa). Track one alone, named 'Guiding Light' is a massive piece of constantly evolving dark ambient, sludge and drones.

That being said, this album is just as inventive and adventurous as 'The Western Lands' by Barst, although that one has a lot more tempo changes and eclectic elements. 'Retinae Tenebrae' seems to focus more on a mix between neoclassical and dark ambient, which is just as welcome in my book. Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio comes to mind here, but also some of those epic sludge metal bands, in a way. That cannot be just Colin's influence, that must be decades of experience in all sounds dark and heavy.

The verdict? As I said, this album only confirms everything I said about Belgian ambient acts. Of course this comes highly recommended. What else did you expect?


​Serge

ambient / drone / experimental

In the past, I have been pretty lyrical about our Belgian drone and ambient artists and their stunning diversity. Well, today, I'd like to throw another one on the already impressive pile, one that has been roaming in the world of music since the late eighties. His name is Marc De Backer and you might know him from the krautrock meets black metal act Wolvennest. Under his moniker Mongolito, he comes up with a psychedelic approach to the guitar driven drone and ambient we Belgians are so damn good at.

However, although Mongolito can easily be placed among one-man-and-his-guitar acts like Dirk Serries, Stratosphere and Ashtoreth, he seems to prefer to dwell in the psychedelic regions of the scene. Most of the tracks on 'Odyssey' are no mere ambient tunes but psychedelic krautrock anthems. Drones are just one part of Mongolito's music, the other part consists of immersive plucks and epic soundscapes. They are perfectly suited to add vocals but that is not needed. The tracks are strong enough without them.

It's no wonder the this album got picked up by Hau Ruck! records, which is run by Albin Julius of Der Blutharsch and the Infinite Church of the Leading Hand. The music on 'Odyssey' fits perfectly with what Der Blutharsch create these days, be it in a more intimate and minimal setting. 'Thy Will Be Done', for example, is a highly immersive piece of music, one that will regularly find the way to my speakers. This one thrives on a sluggish tempo and features influences from both kraut and post rock 

I'm not going into a song-by-song description here but I will recommend this one to all fans of slow, instrumental music, including but not restricted to post rock, ambient, krautrock and psychedelic rock. This is simply another beautiful example of how versatile one can be with a guitar and a deck of effect and loop pedals. The one-man drone scene is evolving is that is a damn good thing. It keeps things vibrant and interesting and this album is both. So check it out, you will not be disappointed...


​Serge

avant garde / experimental / drone / jazz / noise

Well well, here is something you don't hear every day. That is, unless you are a hardcore free jazz fan who easily finds his way into the pummeling chaos that this genre is.  If you, on the other hand, are someone who loves his music to be easy digestible, controlled and somewhat predictable, you might want to think twice before hitting the "play" button on top of this review. Your world might be shattered.

Of course, the Dutch don't really care about shattered worlds and pulverised dreams. That little country has been throwing a lot of unexpected and weird things on the world, including gabber hardcore but also the awesome blend between grindcore and jazz that Dead Neanderthals produce. Well, it the latter region we find The Julie Mittens, for me now known as "the Skullflower of the jazz scene", and their haunting release 'Soundcult'. 

What  to expect from this release? Well, a lot of noise, inspired by the Japanese noise scene. The four songs, each lasting over ten minutes, are incoherent and dissonant slabs of drones, noises, percussion and unidentifiable sounds. This certainly is something for the trained and experienced ear but those ears might be overjoyed with these bizarre sounds. So who to recommend it to? Everyone, just check it out and allow The Julie Mittens to drag you into a whirlpool of noise. It'll be an experience you never forget.


Serge

shoegaze / drone / doom

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the world of one-man bands is an intriguing one. Solo acts have been fascinating me for years. Many of them come up with dark, enigmatic music, exploring their deepest emotions, fears and ennui with all kinds of instruments. Of course, loopers, samplers and software make it possible for people to work alone but still, doing it all on your own is quite an achievement, especially when the result is a perplexing piece of work.

Planning For Burial is such a one-man project, formed by Thom Wasluck. His music is slow, harsh, emotive and gloomy. 'Below the House' is an introvert but bombastic piece of work, loaded with influences from shoegaze, doom metal, nineties dark rock, ambient and drone. It is an album that comes from deep within the artist and it reaches out to all those who are into sonic darkness.

Opener 'Whiskey and Wine' first comes up with the droning beauty we know are respect bands like Nadja and Jesu for. However, soon the blackened sludge metal vocals come in, making the whole thing even harsher than it is. Here, Deafheaven comes to mind but they soon disappear when the following songs show different vocals, clean ones. On 'Somewhere In The Evening' another side is shown, the one that reminds me of  a band like Anathema.

To show his know-how in the noise and dark ambient scene, Planning For Burial threw the dark track 'Past Lives' on this album. Right before that 'Warmth Of You' drags in influences from dark rock and new wave bands, like Killing Joke meets A Place To Bury Strangers. '(something)' is soothing ambient tune, serving as an intro for the stunning tandem 'Dull Knife pt. I & 2'. Here, like in the opener, the noise elements seem to return. If Skullflower would make a shoegaze album, it would probably sound something like this.

In all, this is another one of those albums that throw their listeners into a whirlpool of drones, despair, depression and solitude and that's perfectly fine by me. If you are one of those people who prefer slow music which is loaded with sentiment, you need this album. On a medium volume, it's an enjoyable alternative rock album. On high level it's a massive blast of drones, drums and doom. So it's perfectly suited for every situation...


Serge

drone / ambient

Belgian drone guru Ashtoreth is a busy man. Not only did he recently release an album with his band Emptiness (read review), he also kicked off our Lapses cycle (read) and helped the Unexplained Sounds Group compile a stunning compilation with Belgian ambient acts (read that review too). Now, that same Unexplained Sounds Group throws Ashtoreth's latest effort in the mix, an hour long excursion through drones, soundscapes and atmospheres.

The album is recorded live and dedicated to Morana, a Baltic and Slavic goddess, associated with seasonal rites based on the idea of death and rebirth of nature. The concept somehow reflects perfectly in the music. Like nature, the music is slow but steadfast. It sounds fragile but it can easily carry the listener on its soundwaves. Of course, since this is a drone and ambient album, you don't have to expect anything heavy or in-your-face.

No, this goes way deeper than your face. A track like 'Kāla Nāg' slowly slithers into your mind, your very conscience. It thrives on elaborate waves of soundscapes and feels like one of the most ocean-resembling pieces of music I've ever heard. Furthermore, here Ashtoreth's voice also appears, adding a sense of rituality to the whole thing. As often on this album, I'm reminded of acts like CHVE, not a bad act to be compared with if you ask me.

'Tymor' is an immense piece of work, lasting for twenty six minutes with not a boring second to be found. It's a dreamy, lingering and gentle composition that shows exactly how well Ashtoreth masters the trade. With stuff like this, he easily proves that he can stand next to those other Belgian drone masters like Dirk Serries, Stratosphere, the earlier mentioned CHVE and Barst. Yeah, sorry world, in this genre, Belgium is winning.. (*).

​'Waní Yetu' somewhat differs from the other tracks as the choir-like vocal parts add something religious to the whole thing. They also make this one the most eerie track on this entire album, which is quite ironic. The more nature-resembling tracks are soothing pieces of ambient and the religion-resembling one is scary as hell.  But perhaps that's just my mind playing tricks on me. Fact remains, this is a great song, bringing some more variation to the album.

Closer 'Hyberna' is one of my favorites, but in a way all these tunes are. If you love drones, if you are a fan of all the aforementioned acts, there is absolutely no reason why you should not get your hands on this album. 'Morana' is a solid, narrative, atmospheric and well-varied full-length that definitely deserves a spot in your collection. So check it out, you will not be disappointed, I can assure you.


Serge

(*) In December, when we publish our best-of list, I think we'll make one 'Best Of' and one 'Best Of Non-Belgian Albums'. We're crushing the competition here...

dream pop, shoegaze, ambient

Here is Aidan Baker again, by now probably to most frequently occurring artist on this website. Not that I mind, Baker's works are pretty much always welcome in my inbox,, whether it's Nadja, Caudal, Hypnodrone Ensemble, his solo musical endeavors or his cooperations with people like Karen Willems or Tomas Järmyr. In that, this release is no different. but in some other aspects, this is a completely new direction for Aidan.

That new direction is mainly guided by his interest in coldwave, shoegaze and dream pop, but also by the distinct voice of Shield Patterns' vocalist Claire Brentnall. Together, Baker and Brentnall have created something amazing, something that almost made me replace the genres on top of this review with the word 'magic'. Away from the usual drones and soundscapes we are used to by now, this cooperation beautifully pierces itself into the dream pop scene.

With that, I do indeed recommend this album to every fan of acts like Cocteau Twins,  This Mortal Coil and here and there even early Dead Can Dance. Apart from two interludes, this album is filled with atmospheric, dreamy songs. Brentnall's vocals fit in perfectly with the soundscapes and often appearing mild drums. Opener 'Delirious Things' and the breathtaking 'Wingless' are jewels, and they are far from the only ones on this album.

So yes, this is an awe-inspiring album, one that will undoubtedly become a favorite for many fans of Aidan Baker. I don't think I am the only one who wants to experience this magic live and I hope that I will have that opportunity one day. But for now, this album is going straight into my day-to-day playlist, perhaps even twice so the songs appear more often. I suggest you do the same. This is pure magic...


Serge

drone / ambient

Do you believe in coincidence? I don't. For the record, I don't believe in predestination either. Yet, the strangest thing happened to me the other day. I was tidying up the house when I found a box with patches and stickers. They were items I had been collecting in that box ever since I founded this website. Bands often add these to the albums they send us and I don't mind. On the contrary. One day, I'm planning to use all of them in a massive wall-collage, like the Merchants Of Air hall-of-fame or something like that. Anyway, when I opened the box, the first item I found was a Thisquietarmy-patch.

"Look", I said to my wife, "it's been a while since I heard about Eric and his drone act". So, we started playing 'Anthems For Catharsis' again, a brilliant album. Three minutes into the album, I received an email from Eric, a review submission for his next work. We looked at each other and laughed. That was a coincidence. I wasn't even aware of the fact that Thisquietarmy was going to release another album. I had missed the teaser video and I simply assumed Eric was touring continuously. We quickly unzipped the next album and fed it to my media-machine.

(so now the real review begins)

The new Thisquietarmy album is titled 'Métamorphose'. It's a vast, two hours lasting epos of drones and soundscapes, completely void of drums. Yes, that's true. The drums are gone, the suffocating bombast of 'Anthems For Catharsis'  is gone. Drones and soundscapes, that's what left, and they are magnificent. The album is inspired by a poem by Meryem Yildiz, hence the titles. All else is minimalistic and murky beauty.  Somehow, the whole thing reminds me of Aidan Baker or Dirk Serries, here and there enhanced by some Schulze-psychedelics.

On the other hand, 'Métamorphose IV - Ce corps ne te sera jamais étranger' comes close to acts like Master Musicians Of Bukkake, coming up with eerie ritualistic chants and piercing drones. In that aspect, I can compare this and some other tracks to CHVE, be it a harsher and more abrasive than the latter. I don't mind, drones are drones and pretty much all of them are perfectly fine in my book. Besides, a two hours lasting album needs a bit of variation, especially when the drums have been put aside. In that Thisquietarmy certainly succeeded.

So, to conclude, 'Métamorphose' is different from his previous work but at the same time it confirms Thisquietarmy's place among the Bakers, the Serries and the Caminitis of this world. Undoubtedly, this thing deserves a spot in your collection. It's just a great piece of drone ambient, one that I would definitely like to experience live soon. I think I said it before, but 2017 is going to be a great year for music and a bloody frustrating year for people like me, people who will have to stress over end-year lists in december. 


​Serge

drone / ambient / jazz / krautrock

drone / krautrock / experimental

singer-songwriter

bandcamp

doom / dark ambient

metal / metalcore

thrash metal / hardcore

doom / sludge

metal / metalcore 

doom / sludge / black metal

doom

sludge / doom

Serge

progressive metal

dark ambient

post rock

shoegaze / psychedelic

symphonic doom

grindcore

alternative / metal

dark ambient

indie rock / pop rock

punk rock

rock / blues

funeral doom / black metal

noise / drone / spoken word

heavy metal

death metal / black metal

Serge

drone / doom

After several releases Morgan Bellini decided it was time to put Italian shoegaze and drone doom cult act Vanessa Van Basten to sleep and embark on a new sonic adventure, That new adventure received the name Angela Martyr and somewhat further develops the much appreciated blend of styles, created by Vanessa Van Basten. In the past, the act seemed to be influenced by acts like Godflesh, Jesu and Swans and those references return on this outstanding debut.
On 'The November Harvest', this act once again blends shoegaze, doom metal and drones into an immersive sonic whirlpool. The whole thing sounds like a mix of Slowdive and Godflesh. Slow, droning doom songs sluggishly roll out of my speakers, accompagnied with soft, clean vocals. Some of the songs, including 'Carsleeper' and 'Deathwish' bring Nadja to mind, Undoubtedly, this music will make a lot of head nod in approval, currently including mine.
That being said, I think it's about time that bands like this one appear on psychedelic doom festivals like Desertfest and, why not, post rock festivals like Dunk! Festival. Ok, perhaps that might be a bit selfish of me because I really, really, really want to experience this live, but I also think they will both fit in perfectly and provide the necessary variation on these events. You should have guessed by now that I've already become a massive fan of Angela Martyr.
My favorite songs on this album inlucde opener 'Deviant' and follower 'Georgina'. However, what I like most, is just get lost in these massive drones and riffs, all the way to the awesome and huge closer 'Angela Martyr'. I suggest you do the exact same thing. If you're a fan of Nadja, Jesu, the late Vanessa Van Basten or anything in this genre, 'The November Harvest' should definitely have a spot in your collection.


​Serge

dream pop

jazz / krautrock / post rock

electronic / idm

techno

rock / experimental

stoner / doom

psychedelic doom

black metal / doom / thrash

thrash metal

metalcore

drone / ambient / psychedelic

folk / rock

thrash metal

punk / hardcore

post rock / psychedelic / progressive

drone / ambient

The Endless Now – Music for Stagnation, is an album by Finnish musician Juha-Matti Rautiainen. A skillful and crafted bass player, that elevates into another category the possibilities concerning the instrument, presents us on this album a vast range of ambient music, fully aligned with textures and tunes apparently dispersed by dream-like dubious correlations, dragged from a very unusual and ecstatic dimension, that calmly dissipates the ranges that creates sincere symphonies and poetic delusions from the ethereal sound of a distant galaxy. While the sound appears to be reminiscent of a simple stylish cohesion, it is in fact fully dispersed by the infinity that wonderfully sees beyond colorful universes, shattered through the opaque veil of a sensibility impersonated by an intensity completely elaborated throughout the anatomy of a cosmos filled with beauty, calmness, relaxation and introspection. In other words, an oblique realm of sound, lucidity and vagueness, interleaved by the beautiful elasticity of a ghost reality, subtlety immersed below the grains of life.    

With the prevalence of soft and serene harmonies, completely dilapidated in the walls of sonorous layers unbound by heavens of melodic fulfillment, these smooth and indefinite tracks are perfectly aligned with introspective melodic streams, obliterated by the sands of time. A thoroughly poetic sound, that connects you to a more delicate side of existence, The Endless Now – Music for Stagnation is filled with an harmonic sensibility, that compels the mind to take a journey to a parallel delight of eternity.

With an impressive degree of beauty, excellence and sensibility, this album displays a fantastic conscious travel to a diffuse labyrinth, where everything is more intense, elaborated and refined. With a sonorous stream of transcendental evaluation, that easily defines the radiant sphere of interceptive melodies, Juha-Matti Rautiainen expands the boundaries of the harmonies from the inner perceptions of its own intrinsic values and devices, gently soliciting to the more dispersive cadences to fulfill the spaces upon which his objectifying clarity relies. Nonetheless, the abstract nuances of his creative sagacity are nowhere to be seen, but it is heard all the way through the vast contingencies of the panels fully elaborated beyond the inner dynamics that slowly solidifies the uneasiness of the rhythms.   

Slowly built upon a very graceful layer of marvelous creativity, The Endless Now – Music for Stagnation is a deeply virtuous album, thoroughly exhilarated at the rapture of a cosmic journey that begins in the immense boundaries of conscience, expanding from its own panoramic axis. With a sonorous omnipresence that revolves around the universe upon which all the musicality of the album is strictly built, this work reevaluates all the nuances, colors, arrangements and sensibilities that comprehends the universe of ambient music, delightfully making a rereading of all the necessary elements in question. As a result, The Endless Now – Music for Stagnation reinvigorates the statement that underlines the powerful solidity that understands the expansion of Juha-Matti Rautiainen’s own peculiar style, and unique brand of ambient music. A vigorous and compelling work of art, that his fans will love, and his admirers will try – without success – to imitate. 


​Wagner

ambient / drone

Released on November 7 by netlabel Kage Recordings, Songs Concerning The World of Old is an ambient and drone album by an artist known only by the nom de plume of Túrion. With twelve tracks – Silver Dawn Glimmer, Grass, Unfading, Blue As The Sky Unclouded, Unmade Into The Old Abyss, The Long Dark Before The Sun, Until The World Ends, He Has Forsaken Her, When Shadows Lengthen, Take Pity On His Sadness, Among Tales Of Sorrow And Ruin, A Farewell To Love And Light and Renewal – Songs Concerning The World Of Old is a magnificent and profound ambient experience. With a serene soundscape lucidly contorted in a long journey of intensely ecstatic harmonies, this album internalizes a predominant but unforeseeable galaxy of sonorous distinction, that utilizes graceful and soft elements as a vivid component of immaterial device.

With serenity being the most prominent element, Songs Concerning The World Of Old adopts an intention-over-technique procedure, to create, strengthen and consolidate the primary components of its harmonies. An album made to completely leave you relaxed, these calm melodies will take your mind to unseen places in the distant universe, that you never thought existed. Transcendental, soft and quiet, this work creates consistent atmospheres, made to fulfill your inner considerations, calm you down and renew your spirit. 

With apparently vague, but consistent melodies, these dream-like soft harmonies will keep your mind distant, wandering in the depths of an unknown and unseen universe, in a marvelous, but spirited synthesis of silence, inexistent as a star in the sky, at broad daylight. With a philosophical approach awkwardly intense, this beautiful album really has everything to capture an attentive audience, willing to travel in the wingspan of its meritorious delight. A reviving glory that keeps the sound flowing, as beautiful as an eternal horizon could be. 

Almost one hour long, the beautiful rhythms of this marvelous, fascinating and exuberant soundscape will leave you relaxed and sensitive. Evoking the powerful forces of the cosmos, Songs Concerning The World of Old, although a little ecstatic, is a brilliant ambient album, almost conceptual in the highly concentrated intensity of its own light. A gigantic sonorous galaxy immersed in a severe soul dedicated to disperse the serenity throughout the whole universe, this work will really make you see ambient music through another scope.                


​Wagner

ambient / drone

Dronescape 13 is the most recent album by exceedingly prolific Canadian electronic music artist James Parrot, that has more than a hundred and forty releases on his bandcamp page, all in the drone and ambient genres. Released recently, on November 22, Dronescape 13 has only one track – like all of his Dronescape series has, so far – titled 12-10-1, being almost forty minutes long.

With a very calm, direct and lucid atmosphere, that transpires a vast and profound degree of constant serenity and calmness throughout the whole track, on his most recent work, James Parrott seems to reevaluate the meaning and the significance of a constant sonorous basis for the foundation of the track itself, that relies more in the maintenance of the constant wall of a pragmatic static harmony, that instills the usual force that seems to be the predominant ordeal in his work.

Perfect for a session of meditation, an afternoon spent on tranquility, to evoke calmness is to consolidate inner peace. The music of James Parrot can be characterized as exercises in calmness, as he unfolds in the interior world of the listener an entire universe made up of sonorous possibilities, filled with colorful suggestions of hope and sincere exhilaration. A calm and static music, that certainly can be qualified, first and foremost, as a philosophic detachment of every possible human correlation, understood by the conscious rules of an unbreakable and antagonistic paroxysm created by human principles. So you just have to listen, and let the sound do the travel for you. Your mind will be transferred to several curious spaces and fantastic places, that no other artistic works, instruments or intentions in this world – or in another places of this same existential sphere of influence whatsoever – could lead you to. 

With a reflexive and philosophic strength underlying its majestic axis, Dronescape 13, with its only track 12-10-1, is more of a key, or an instrument, if you prefer, built by the artist as a means for the listeners to take a journey inside their own minds. With a deep, but profoundly calm resonance that dialogues with the inner conditions of its own predisposed isolated universe, Dronescape 13 marvelously arranges a bridge to connect the listener to the other side of his own panoramic emotional landscape, in a formidable layer of inextinguishable tranquility, that summarizes a vast connection to one’s soul with the rest of the universe. It’s an infinitesimal piece of a duplicate substratum of peace, propagated by a sound that will be forever lost at the confines of the spirit of the listener, living in a timeless parallel universe, where each and every lucid harmony will resound like a note of this simple, but ethereal symphony of tranquility, that dissipates eternal quietness in the dreams of a pure majestic ambient sound, made to conjugate the sound of eternal peace.      
 

​Wagner

ambient / drone / noise

Dezoito (which means eighteen, in Portuguese) is the eighteenth album by Brazilian electronic/ ambient/ drone/ noise artist Gustavo Jobim. With four tracks – being them Heart and Sound and Soul and Vision, The Road, For Richard Pinhas and 33 – Jobim (the same last name of a great legend of Brazilian popular music, Antônio Carlos Jobim, better known as Tom Jobim) is a musician obviously influenced by the classic German school of electronica, something the artist himself acknowledges openly.  

Dezoito is a very interesting album, filled with intriguing noises, contrasts, sonorous experimentations and uplifting twisting beats. Nonetheless, given the length and the nature of each one of these tracks, I strongly recommend you to listen to each one of them separately and calmly, after you listen to the whole album, which will be a far more enjoyable experience, since each one of these tracks appear to be grounded in a very artistic, experimental and fearless exploratory field of work. 

Undoubtedly appearing to be a very methodical work, sometimes lucid, sometimes more hallucinatory, Jobim obviously like to explore the vastness of his musical proficiency, astoundingly studying possibilities in a noisy and protuberating soundscape, establishing for himself no limits or boundaries. On his interesting approach to songwriting, composition and execution, he clearly sees the result of what he is doing. Nonetheless, given his astounding levels of experimentation – and obvious despise for commercial appeal, which would be no surprise at all for such a fearless and skilled underground artist – and the fact that his major influences are misunderstood and audacious electronic acts from the past, his music is confined to a very restrict audience, with the hopes of being understood and properly appreciated only to a handful of eccentric enthusiasts.

But his music really has interesting potential, abilities and capacities, apparently built in a very cohesive diagram of techniques, sounding joyful, modest, playful and exhilarating at the same time. Despite the whole album being charged with a magnificent sphere of lucid sensitivity, the first two tracks set the groundbreaking standards here. The second one, The Road, really impersonates a beautiful and relinquishing atmosphere, subsumed by an 80’s nostalgia, that captures you, and never leaves you unannounced or lost at the center of its own free styled rhythms. Filled with interesting references and influences from the experimental and electro scene of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, this album reevaluates the musical proficiency of electronica in a more vast panel, properly diluted in a style that reinvigorates a fresh sobriety into harmonies that admonishes a sonorous galaxy of possibilities like only a handful of artists are capable of really doing it right, in the whole history of the electronica genre, and its multiple subgenres. 

Filled with a great multitude of layers, albeit his music can be described as static to a certain degree, given the fact that one main rhythm can be predominant throughout a whole track, Dezoito, by Gustavo Jobim, certainly is an interesting sonorous experience, that will certainly enlarge your personal concept about electronica experimental music, and will surround you with a nostalgia feeling – if you are familiarized with the genre, of course – for such magical moments that this album, in the end, will make you search for more works of this fascinating, exquisite, eccentric but very inventive, creative and audacious artist.      


​Wagner

drone / ambient / post rock

Aah, the Belgians. What a bunch of drone geniuses we have. Dirk Serries, Stratosphere, CHVE, Syndrome, Ashtoreth,... the list is getting bigger and bigger. Now we can add another project to that list, one named Barst. After numerous live performances, splits and cassettes, this one-man project is now ready to release his first full-length. The album contains two tracks, each lasting for over twenty minutes. However, before you expect some nice, blissful ambient, please read on. This might be one of the most varied and surprising albums in its genre.

First off, the massive achievement wouldn't have been possible without a little help from his friends. On this album a heap of artists lent a hand: Mike Armine (Rosetta), Dehn Sora (Treha Sektori, Sembler Deah, …), Karen Willems (Inwolves), Mathieu Mathlovsky(Mathlovsky), Nicolas Van Meirhaeghe (Empusae, Onus, …), An-Sofie De Meyer (FÄR), Tokyo Oyo and Herr Man. If you know some of these acts, you might start realising just how varied this thing really is. I'll try to guide you through.

The album opens with a drone, and so far this was pretty much exactly what I expected. Yet, then it happens. In the first track alone, the music ranges from ambient to post metal to martial industrial to ritualistic chants. Besides the usual drone-ambient acts mentioned above, acts like Deutsch Nepal, Russian Circles, Sophia, Biosphere and even Dead Can Dance come to mind. This is a heap of influences pressed together, no wonder the track lasts this long. Track two even adds a dash of gloomy techno with sludge metal vocals to the whole thing. I've never danced to drone music before.

So yes, for this genre of music, 2016 has been a fantastic year, especially in Belgium. Lots of our most respected artists have released a brilliant album and, in my humble opinion, Barst tops it off in the most varied way imaginable. I can only recommend this gem to pretty much every fan of inventive and original music. You can be sure that this thing will end up somewhere in my end-year list, just like I'm sure that you will often stare at your speakers in absolute disbelief. 

Damn, I love this job...


​Serge